Palestinian security sources said that the Israeli forces arrested Wasfi Kabaha, a West Bank-based Hamas leader.

Um Osama, the 50-year-old Kabaha’s wife, said that Israeli soldiers broke into the house at 2 a.m. and took her husband to an undisclosed location.

Kabaha, who had served as a minister for prisoner affairs in the former Hamas-government deposed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in June 2007, had been arrested several times. He was released from an Israeli prison in May 2010.

The Hamas movement said in a press statement that Kabaha is among 17 of its ministers and lawmakers Israel holds as “bargaining chips” to use as leverage in the efforts to secure the release of kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Israeli arrested three Hamas lawmakers in the last two weeks.

The Palestinians security sources said that the Israeli forces arrested the other seven Palestinians from the areas of Bethlehem and Nablus.

Israeli security sources said the arrest campaign targeted members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements. The sources told the Israeli Army Radio that the eight were wanted by the Israeli security forces and were taken to unknown locations for questioning by the Israeli intelligence service Shin Bet.

Meanwhile, in West Bank villages, hundreds of Palestinian, Israeli and foreigner peace activists clashed with Israeli forces during anti-separation wall protests.

Palestinian security sources said that clashes erupted in the village Al-Mi'sarah, to the south of Bethlehem, and the villages of Bil’in, Ni’lin, and Al-Nabi Saleh, to the south of Ramallah.

The sources said several activists were wounded from rubber-coated metal bullets the Israeli soldiers fired to disperse the protestors. The sources said that several activists suffered from gas inhalation.