RAMALLAH/GAZA: Gunmen with suspected links to Hamas security forces in the Gaza Strip killed at least 32 Palestinians and wounded dozens in attacks on political opponents and alleged informers during and after Israel’s recent war in the coastal territory, an international human rights group said yesterday.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch urged Gaza’s Hamas rulers to halt what it described as a pattern of arbitrary arrests, torture and summary executions by the movement.

Meanwhile, Hamas strongly denied the report saying its forces were not involved in extra-judicial killings.

Fawzi Barhoum, a spokesman of Hamas, dismissed the report as unbalanced, and said that his movement is willing to investigate any complains.

Barhoum pointed out that “the suspected collaborators who fled Gaza’s central prison after it was destroyed in Israeli bombing raids in December, were killed by relatives of those they harmed, but not by the security forces.”

Human Rights Watch portrayed the attacks as the worst outbreak of internal violence since Hamas fighters violently seized control of Gaza in June 2007 and expelled rivals in the Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who now controls only the West Bank.

Such practices are aimed, in part, at quashing dissent in Gaza and make a mockery of Hamas’ claim it upholds the law, the group said. During the war, “Hamas authorities ... took extraordinary steps to control, intimidate, punish and at times eliminate their internal political rivals as well as persons suspected of collaborating with Israel,” the report said.

Eighteen Palestinians were killed by Hamas during the three-week war, which ended Jan. 18, and 14 others were killed afterward, the report said.

In addition, 49 Gazans were shot in the legs by masked gunmen between Dec. 28 and Jan. 31, and 73 had their arms or legs broken, the report said, citing a rights group linked to Abbas. Human Rights Watch said repressive measures are also on the rise in the Abbas-controlled West Bank.

Abbas’ security forces have been cracking down on Hamas in the West Bank since the resistance fighters seized Gaza. Hamas detainees in West Bank prisons have complained of mistreatment, including beatings and being tied up in painful positions.

— With input from agencies