The Palestinian leftist Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) accused the Palestinian security services on Tuesday of helping the Israeli army in arresting its three militants suspected of killing a Jewish settler.

A PRC spokesman who identified himself only as Abu Abeer told a news conference in Gaza that the group's three militants, held in a Palestinian police station in the West Bank city of Ramallah for alleged involvement in the killing of a settler last week, were handed over by Palestinian security services to the Israeli army.

"Security chiefs of the Preventive Security Forces and the Palestinian Intelligence Services in Ramallah have chased down our fighters, arrested them and handed them to Israel," he said, accusing the Palestinian security services of being loyal to Israel.

The PRC spokesman vowed to punish everyone who cooperated with Israel and called on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to launch an investigation into the incident.

Israeli army sources said that Israeli troops surrounded the Palestinian police station in Ramallah on early Tuesday and demanded the militants come out.

After a few hours, the militants walked out and were arrested by the Israeli troops, said the sources, adding that there was no confrontation.

Israel has already held a fourth suspect.

The PRC claimed responsibility for kidnapping and killing the 18-year-old Eliyahu Asheri, whose body was found near Ramallah on June 29.

The PRC also took part in a cross-border raid on an Israeli army post near the Gaza border on June 25, during which two Israeli soldiers were shot dead and a third was kidnapped.

Source: Xinhua