The interior ministry of the deposed Hamas government said on Thursday that it freed 150 prisoners from its jails in Gaza, including rival Fatah movement's senior leaders.

The ministry said in a statement that its police released 150 prisoners, who were arrested after a Gaza beach bombing attack, including governor of the central area of the Gaza Strip Abdullah Abu Samhadana.

Ministry spokesman Ihab al-Ghusein said in a written statement sent to reporters that the interior ministry has also ordered to reopen 20 charity organizations affiliated with Fatah movement in the Gaza Strip.

Following the bombing attack on July 25 on a Hamas militants' car near Gaza beach, which killed five Hamas militants and a little girl, Hamas accused Fatah loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of being behind the attack and cracked down on its members.

"The release of the prisoners was a goodwill gesture in response to the initiative of Ahmed Bahar, the acting speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC)," said al-Ghusein.

In response to Hamas crackdown on Fatah movement in Gaza, Abbas' security forces clamped down on Hamas members in the West Bank.

"Releasing Fatah prisoners and reopening the closed associations of Fatah in Gaza are also a goodwill gesture to end the status of tension between the two movements," said al-Ghusein.

Geographically-divided Gaza Strip and West Bank were politically split when Hamas chased Fatah-dominated security forces out of Gaza in a week-long bloody infighting in June last year.

(Xinhua News Agency August 8, 2008)