Qalqilia – Ma’an – The Palestinian Authority (PA) released a woman who sheltered two Hamas fighters at the time of a deadly shootout that left six people dead in the West Bank city of Qalqiliya in late May.

Three PA security officers, two Hamas fighters and a bystander were killed in the firefight that erupted when the Al-Qassam Brigades gunmen refused to give themselves up on 31 May. The skirmish, along with another deadly shootout days later, was the worst instance of internecine violence in the West Bank in two years.

Huda Mara’beh, the wife of Abdel Nasser Al-Basha, has now been released from a PA prison, Hamas said on Thursday. She has been ordered, Hamas also said, to stay in her home town of Ras Atiyeh. The PA has not commented on the story.

Hamas also said that the PA arrested seven more of its members in the West Bank overnight on Thursday.