A local Salafist leader was shot dead in Gaza City on Tuesday during a confrontation with Hamas police and security officials who went to arrest him, the interior ministry said.

The incident occurred in the northern Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood with the interior ministry identifying the gunman as 27-year-old Yussef al-Hatar, a local leader of a group of Islamic extremists known as Salafists.

Hamas, the de facto power in Gaza, has in recent months been waging a harsh crackdown on Salafist groups operating in the enclave following a series of unclaimed bomb attacks.