Hamas says it has released the top representative of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party in the Gaza Strip.
Zakaria Agha was held for four days after being seized by Hamas gunmen.
He was detained as part of a wave of arrests of Fatah supporters Israel returns pro-Fatah members ...
Top Fatah officials held in Gaza ... after a beachside bombing killed five Hamas militants and a young girl.
Fatah denied involvement in the attack and carried out its own series of arrests in the West Bank.
"We have released Zakaria Agha as a sign of goodwill and in response to Arab and Palestinian efforts," Hamas spokesman Taher Nunu told the AFP news agency.
Mr Agha and fellow senior Fatah official Ibrahim Abu Naja were among those arrested in the Hamas crackdown following the coastal bombing.
Tensions flared
Both men had been appointed by Mr Abbas to run Fatah in Gaza after Hamas took control in Gaza in June 2007.
Mr Abu Naja and other Fatah officials are believed still to be in custody.
Violence erupted over the weekend when Hamas fighters clashed with a pro-Fatah clan in Gaza City.
Nearly a dozen people were killed and scores wounded in the worst internal feuding since the militant Hamas faction gained power in Gaza.
In the wake of the fighting about 200 Fatah men fled to Israel. About 35 have since returned to Gaza, where some were detained by Hamas.
(BBC)
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