Ramallah - A Hamas prisoner was found dead Monday in his cell in a West Bank jail run by the Palestinian Authority (PA), a Palestinian security official said.

Adnan Damiri, spokesman for the security forces, said Fadi Hamadneh, 28, from the village of Assira al-Shamalia, apparently used bed sheets to hang himself in his cell in Jneid prison in the northern West Bank city of Nablus.

The Palestinian Intelligence Forces arrested Hamadneh in mid-June on charges of membership in the Islamist Hamas movement. He was told he would be released within a week, according to a family member, who said that another family member held in a nearby cell was brought by the security forces to look at the body hung in the cell.

Even though the PA has opened an investigation into the death of Hamadneh, Hamas accused the PA of killing him under torture.

Speaking from Gaza, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum described the death of Hamadneh as "another crime" by the PA against Hamas activists in the West Bank.

Hamadneh is the third Hamas activist to die in a PA jail in recent months. (dpa)