BBC West Bank correspondent Yolande Knell says there has been recent unrest in Nablus where, historically, large numbers of Palestinian militants were based.
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Palestinian Prime Minister Rami al-Hamdallah ordered the formation of a panel to investigate Halaweh’s killing. The man blamed for the policemen’s deaths, Ahmad Halaweh, was later arrested and according to Akram Rajoub, the Nablus governor, police beat the man to death in prison.
Once there, he was severely beaten by security personnel, lost consciousness and later died, Rajub said.
Halawa was killed after he was taken to Juneid prison in Nablus, he said, although the exact circumstances of his death were not clear.
Halawa, a senior member of the Fatah-linked al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, was the fifth Palestinian to die in the PA’s ongoing hunt for members of a criminal gang wanted by Ramallah authorities.
Mr Halawa was the alleged ringleader of an attack that led to the killing of two policemen in the area last week.
It said it showed “the bloody nature of the Palestinian Authority’s security services”.
The accusations took on a new significance in the wake of the three apparent “extrajudicial executions” by PA security forces this week, as Israel too has been the target of widespread worldwide condemnation for unlawful killings of Palestinians who no longer posed a threat when they were killed, since a wave of unrest swept across the Palestinian territory last October.
Mr Al Rjoub, the governor, said Halawa was “the mastermind” behind the shooting of the officers.
Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip and is a bitter rival of the Fatah-run Palestinian Authority ruling the West Bank, condemned Halawa’s “execution”.
Mr Hamdallah called the incident “exceptional” and pledged to publish the results of the investigation.
Hundreds of residents of the northern West Bank city of Nablus have taken part in violent protests on Tuesday accusing the Palestinian Authority Security Forces (PASF) of killing a detainee, Israeli media reported.
Tuesday’s killing has sparked a storm of condemnations in the West Bank.
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Last week, Israeli forces also conducted an unprecedented 20-hour raid in al-Fawwar refugee camp in the Hebron under the pretext of uncovering weaponry, during which an unarmed Palestinian teen was shot dead and dozens others were hospitalized.
