(Adds Haniyeh's comments)

By Ari Rabinovitch

JERUSALEM, Oct 23 (Reuters) - A Palestinian prisoner has died of injuries suffered during a riot at an Israeli jail, a prisons spokeswoman said on Tuesday.

At least 30 people were wounded in clashes between Palestinian prisoners and guards on Monday.

The violence erupted when guards conducted a routine search for weapons in a tented complex housing 1,000 prisoners in Israel's Negev desert, the spokeswoman said.

At least 15 guards and 15 prisoners were hurt in the riot, during which prisoners hurled rocks and torched tents. The spokeswoman said the guards used only "non-lethal" means to quell the violence, which lasted about an hour.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the prisoners involved were members of the Islamist group Hamas.

"I think the unrest amongst the Hamas prisoners is (caused by the fact) that we don't release Hamas prisoners. We release Fatah prisoners," Olmert told reporters during a London visit.

Israel has freed prisoners from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's secular Fatah faction in an attempt to bolster him against Hamas. The Islamist group seized control of the Gaza Strip after a brief civil war in June.

Olmert and Abbas are scheduled to discuss Palestinian statehood at a coming U.S.-sponsored conference.

"We have released hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and we will consider a release of more, but none of them will be Hamas, because Hamas continues to be engaged in terrorist actions against Israel," Olmert said.

Keeping up their almost daily operations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Israeli forces killed three Palestinian militants on Tuesday. Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas leader who was prime minister in the Palestinian government Abbas declared void, said he condemned Israel in the name of all his people.

"This policy will not break the will of those heroes, will not break the will of the Palestinian people and Palestinian factions," he said at a Gaza rally. "We stress the unity of our people against this aggression."

More than 100 Palestinians gathered near a Jewish holy site in the occupied West Bank to protest over the death of the prisoner. An Israeli army spokesman said soldiers used rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse the protesters after one threw a fire bomb at troops.

Hamas vowed revenge for the prisoner's death and said in a statement that attacks on Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails could bring "painful choices" regarding the fate of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Shalit was abducted last year by Gaza militants in a cross-border raid. (Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza)

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