Abbas's forces question 2 West Bank Hamas leaders

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - A Palestinian security force loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas detained two Hamas leaders for seven hours on Saturday after one of them said publicly the Palestinian Authority was behaving like Israel.

Faraj Rummana told Reuters that he and Hussein Abu Kwaik were held in separate cells and questioned by the Preventive Security Service (PSS) in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where Abbas's Fatah faction holds sway.

A Palestinian security official confirmed the two men had been summoned to PSS headquarters.

Earlier in the day, Abu Kwaik said on al-Jazeera television that Palestinian forces in the Ramallah area had arrested dozens of Hamas activists recently and were acting like Israeli occupation forces.

Both Rummana and Abu Kwaik are prominent West Bank leaders of Hamas, an Islamist group that wrested control of the Gaza Strip from Fatah in fighting in June and opposes Abbas's peace moves with Israel.

In the television interview, Abu Kwaik called on Abbas to dismiss the West Bank-based government of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in order to stop the arrests of Hamas supporters.

Rummana said he and Abu Dweik were held for seven hours and questioned about the comments made to al-Jazeera.

A security official told the two men before they were released to ensure that Hamas "did not make trouble" during U.S. President George W. Bush's visit to the West Bank and Israel next week, Rummana said.

Fatah has said many of its supporters have been questioned or jailed in the Gaza Strip since Hamas took over the territory. Hamas has denied the arrests are politically motivated and said jailed Fatah activists had broken the law.

(Reporting by Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza, writing by Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem, editing by Andrew Roche)