GAZA, Oct 30 (Reuters) - A Hamas policeman was killed and three others were wounded when an explosive device went off in a police station in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, a spokesman for the force said.

Hamas police spokesman Islam Shahwan said the device was found earlier in the day in the Hamas-controlled territory and was taken to the police station to be dismantled.

While security men were taking the bomb apart, it exploded, causing several secondary blasts, Shahwan said.

An Egyptian-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Gaza's Islamist rulers has been in place since June.

But internal tensions, between Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's secular Fatah faction, remain high. Hamas seized control of the coastal strip last year after routing Abbas's forces.

It was not immediately clear where the explosive device was found and why it had been taken inside the police station instead of being detonated outside.

Earlier on Thursday, Hamas released 17 jailed Fatah members, saying it set them free as a goodwill gesture before reconciliation talks between the rivals in Cairo on Nov. 9. (Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Writing by Adam Entous; Editing by Michael Roddy)

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