Israel said Monday it has agreed to transfer Fatah members to the West Bank who had fled Gaza following armed clashes that left 11 people dead and some 90 others injured after a Hamas security raid on a pro-Fatah residential enclave in eastern Gaza.

Some 180 members of nationalist Fatah, led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, on Saturday escaped to Israel to head to the West Bank for safety. The Israeli authorities on Sunday returned 35 of them to Gaza, but Hamas promptly set about arresting them.

Hamas police said it detained 10 of the returnees and the others had fled capture.

Abbas had asked the Israeli authorities to return his men back to Gaza to ensure that his movement maintained a presence in the Strip, which Hamas seized by force from the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority (PA) in June 2007.

But following the initial arrests and fearing for the safety of returnees, Abbas' Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak agreed that the fugitives - around 120 of them - would be transferred to the West Bank town of Jericho, a senior Israeli security official told AFP.

An Israeli statement said the authorities had "halted the process" of returning the fleeing men to Gaza upon "information that they were being arrested by Hamas and that their lives were in immediate danger."

The Israeli forces detained some of the men for questioning, including around 20 who were being hospitalized in Israel for injuries sustained during the clashes.

The Israeli decision to send the fugitives to the West Bank followed an urgent appeal to the Supreme Court by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, which warned that Fatah members would be at "mortal risk" if returned to their homes in Gaza.

Palestinian officials in Ramallah said that Israel has already authorized 30 to go to the West Bank, while the rest will need to be interrogated and cleared by the Israeli security services before passing through. Those who wish to return will do so and those not being cleared will be sent to Egypt.

"Israel and the IDF [Israeli Defense Forces], both of whom operate according to humanitarian values in order to save lives, took action both on Sunday and again today, when danger to the men's lives became apparent," according to the Israeli statement.

Some independent Palestinian analysts said the Israeli decision and statement exploited the factional rivalry and could be seen as supporting Hamas' accusation that some Fatah members were "agents of Israeli occupation forces." They went on to criticize Israel for seeking to appear "humanitarian" when it continued its own military assaults and restrictions on Palestinians in the occupied territories.

The latest clashes, the worst intra-Palestinian fighting in more than a year, came during a fierce Hamas crackdown and sweep of Fatah members in the aftermath of a July 25 bombing on a Gaza beach, which killed five Hamas activists and a little girl.

Hamas blamed Fatah members, especially Hellis family members, for the bombing, which Fatah had repeatedly denied and condemned.

However, since the bombing, Hamas arrested hundreds of people, half of whom were later released after questioning.

The Hellis men resisted arrest, leading to battles that Hamas police said left nine people dead, including two Hamas policemen. But Gaza-based human rights groups said 11 were killed in that clash.

As Hamas detained Fatah members and supporters in Gaza in the past week, Fatah also detained Hamas members and supporters in the West Bank, asking them to denounce Hamas' crackdown and renounce the Islamist movement.

Palestinian non-government organizations said Hamas shut down dozens of civil society institutions, charity organizations and sports clubs, most of them affiliated with Fatah, in the impoverished Gaza Strip, where 1.5 million people live in a virtual prison under an Israeli blockade.

Many Arab newspapers on Monday splashed their pages with pictures of the fleeing men – half-naked, handcuffed and blindfolded – being escorted by Israeli soldiers, and making a point of noting that they were stripped by the Israelis to whom they sought refuge from Hamas.

Yet, Arab commentators said they felt deeply shamed at the fratricide committed by Palestinians and their abandoning the struggle for freedom from occupation in favor of an internal struggle for power over a stateless land.

Many independent commentators sought to carefully criticize both factions equally.

"It is no honor for Hamas to prompt some [Hellis] family members, especially the wounded, to seek Israeli ambulances and the [Israeli-Gaza border crossing] seeking the help of the Israelis," said an editorial in the independent Palestinian-owned al-Quds al-Arabi.

The London-based daily added: "And it is no honor for the Hellis family and its leader, Ahmad Hellis - who has a son who was martyred while fighting the Israelis - to accept this Israeli rescue and enemy's protection from the brothers, no matter how sharp or bloody the disputes."

Some talking heads on Arab televisions, however, had sharper criticism for Hamas, which has sought to sell itself as an "armed resistance group" against Israel, yet has forced its Fatah rivals to seek the protection of the people it calls "the enemy."

These pundits argue that Hamas has proven it is in no position to accuse Fatah and the PA of colluding with the Israeli occupation while it is holding its own negotiations to negotiate a peace truce with Israel - albeit an indirect one with Egyptian mediation.

Independent Palestinian analysts say that these two largest factions have failed the Palestinian cause and that if they want to accomplish the Palestinian goal of independence and statehood, they must make room for a new national leadership that is neither disgraced with the corrupt reputation of Fatah nor the repression and religious bigotry of Hamas.