Four people were killed in gunbattles between Hamas militants and Palestinian security forces in the West Bank on Thursday, a source said.

Three Hamas militants and a Palestinian policeman were killed in the gunbattles, the second such incident in less than a week, the source said, adding that the clashes which started early Thursday were over.

The bodies of the three Hamas gunmen were found in a building in which they holed up in the northern West Bank city of Qalqilya, said the source.

Early Thursday morning, Qalqilya governor Rabeh al-Khandaqji told Xinhua that a policeman was killed when he came under fire from a house the Palestinian security forces were trying to search.

Witnesses said the shooting began when the policeman approached the door of the house.

A security source also told Xinhua that Hamas gunmen started the shooting.

Meanwhile, a sources close to Hamas said the Palestinian National Authority sent troops to the house of Abdel Fatah Shraim, a Hamas member who has been in detention, in a bid to arrest his fellow militants hiding there.

The Hamas source, however, denied that the militant attacked the security troops.

The first such incident happened on Sunday when two Hamas militants, three policemen and a civilian were killed in gun battles in a house Hamas gunmen were said to be holed up in.

On Wednesday, a Hamas military spokesman in the Gaza Strip called on his followers in the West Bank, ruled by rival Fatah party, not to give in to any orders of surrender and arrest attempts by pro-Abbas forces.

Hamas and Fatah have been locked in fierce power struggle since Hamas routed pro-Abbas forces and seized control of Gaza in June 2007.

(Xinhua News Agency June 5, 2009)