QALQILIYA, West Bank (AFP) - Two Hamas members and a Palestinian policeman were killed in a gunbattle in the West Bank on Thursday, in the 2nd such clash between rival factions in a week. The shoot-out erupted in the northern town of Qalqiliya between police and Hamas fighters who had holed up in a house, a security official said. Earlier the number of killed Hamas fighters was given as three, but it turned out that one was only wounded. Hamas confirmed that two leaders of the groups armed wing in Qalqiliya had been killed. It accused the Palestinian security forces of liquidating them in cold blood and said the men had been wanted by Israel for six years. Adnan Damiri, the spokesman for the Palestinian Authority security services, denied the allegation, saying the Hamas men had opened fire. In Gaza, the spokesman for the Hamas armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, called on the groups fighters to consider the gangs of (Palestinian president Mahmud) Abbas as occupation forces. All those who participated in the crime in Qalqiliya are wanted by the Al-Qassam Brigades, he warned. In a similar shoot-out, three Palestinian policemen, Mohammed al-Samman, the leader of Hamass armed wing in the northern West Bank and another fighter, along with a passer-by, were wounded during a similar clash in Qalqiliya. Hamas warned then that the incident was a red line and that it held Abbas and his forces wholly responsible. According the results of an investigation by the Al-Haq organisation for the defence of human rights published on Thursday, the Hamas fighters opened fire first on that occasion as well.