RAMALLAH: The Hamas movement on Saturday said that Palestinian Authority’s security forces arrested three of its members and supporters in West Bank.
Hamas said in a press statement that the detentions were made in the cities of Nablus, Qalqilyah and Tulkarm which are controlled by President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement.
Hamas and Fatah have been locked in a power struggle and cracking down on their political opponents in the territories they control. The arrests came two days before Fatah holds in the West Bank city of Bethlehem its first convention in 20 years. More than 1,500 delegates from West Bank and Diaspora are to expected to participate, including 450 people from Gaza. Hamas vowed to arrest and prosecute Fatah members who sneaked out to the West Bank through Israeli-controlled borders to attend Fatah’s sixth convention.
“Anyone who sneaked out from Gaza illegally and with arrangement with the Israeli occupation would be arrested and sent for trial upon return,” Hamas Interior Ministry said in a statement.
Ihab Al-Ghussein, a spokesman for the Hamas interior ministry said in a statement that,” those who have left” had violated the Hamas government’s decision which bars their travel, so they are outlawed and would be prosecuted.”
“It does not make sense that Fatah members to move freely in and out of the Gaza Strip, while Hamas affiliates are being detained in the West Bank,” Al-Ghussein added.
“There isn’t one single detainee in the Gaza Strip held for his political affiliation. All detainees are held for criminal charges.” Tens of Fatah members, despite a Hamas ban, succeeded in leaving for the West Bank over the past couple of days to attend the convention.
The majority of more than 400 invitees in Gaza was unable to head for Bethlehem as Hamas deployed checkpoints along roads leading to Erez crossing point in northern Gaza Strip.
Some of Fatah activists, including women, disguised in Bedouin and Islamic cloths to avoid the checkpoints or to cross to the Israeli side of the borders via other commercial crossings.
Hamas has called on Abbas to free all Hamas activists from jails in the West Bank and to send blank passport documents to Hamas’ administration in Gaza to enable it to issue and renew passports for Gaza’s 1.5 million population.
— With input from Hisham Abu Taha
