RAMALLAH: Israeli forces arrested 20 Palestinians including several Hamas leaders and lawmakers in the West Bank early yesterday, Palestinian and Israeli sources said.
The move was seen as a reprisal for the failure of talks on the release of an Israeli soldier held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The houses of several Hamas leaders in Nablus, Ramallah, Hebron and Bethlehem were raided and a number of leaders detained. Among them was Nasser Eddin Al-Sha’er, who served as education minister in Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh’s government.
Al-Sha’er’s wife Huda said that the Israeli soldiers broke into their house at night and stayed there for about 45 minutes. “They arrested my husband after intensive telephone calls between the soldiers and their superiors.”
According to Palestinian sources, Hamas lawmakers Ayman Daraghmeh, Abduljabbar Foqaha, Azzam Salhab, Nizar Ramadan, and Khaled Tafish were among those detained. Besides, senior Hamas officials Adnan Asfour, Mazin Al-Rimawi, Isam Al-Ashqar and Ra’fat Nasif were also rounded up in the raid.
The Israeli army confirmed that troops arrests. The army said four of the detainees were members of the Hamas Legislative Council and they constituted the “leadership” of the organization in the West Bank. They were arrested because of their recent activity in trying to strengthen the group’s presence in the area, the army said in a statement.
According to Palestinian sources, Israel will use those detained yesterday as “a bargaining chip to secure the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.”
But Hamas remained defiant, saying the Israeli moves would not force it to make concessions on its demands and conditions for a prisoner exchange.
“The Israeli occupation’s measures of kidnapping our leaders and oppressing our prisoners will not weaken us or extort us,” the movement said in a statement sent to the media.
