Special report: Palestine-Israel Relations
    GAZA, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement on Monday called on Hamas to declare an official stance regarding keeping senior members of Fatah in Gaza in custody.

    "For the fourth day, Hamas and its armed apparatuses still hold Fatah leaders in the Gaza Strip and did not allow their families to visit them," said the spokesman in a statement whose name was withheld.

    Among the detainees was Dr. Zakareya al-Agha, the representative of Fatah in Gaza and a number of former governors who reported to Abbas' authority in Ramallah.

    The Fatah leaders were arrested along with dozens of supporters during a crackdown that Hamas launched after a July 25 blast which killed five members of Hamas military wing in the Gaza city.

    "Holding well-known Fatah leaders under kidnapping means that Hamas has no interest in dialogue, national reconciliation and ending the split between the two wings of the home (Hamas and Fatah)," the spokesman said.

    Hamas has said it arrested Fatah leaders in response to the pro-Abbas forces which arrested tens of Islamists in the West Bank. But the Fatah spokesman said the West Bank forces have released all Hamas men who were arrested for political reasons.

    Geographically-divided Gaza and the West Bank were politically split last year when Hamas routed pro-Abbas forces and took over the coastal enclave. Abbas, in response, formed a Western-backed government ruling in the West Bank.