Israeli forces seized a Palestinian cabinet minister and 32
other officials in the occupied West Bank and launched air strikes
in the Gaza Strip Thursday, stepping up a campaign against Hamas
Islamists.
The move prompted renewed threats from Hamas, which said it
would continue to attack Israel with rocket fire.
"Our strikes against the enemy will continue, we have freed the
hand of all our cells to strike the enemy everywhere in Palestine,"
the Hamas armed wing said in a statement.
But Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah demanded Hamas
halt firing at Israeli towns immediately so he could negotiate a
wider truce with the Jewish state.
Abbas told a news conference in Gaza the rocket shootings were
"pointless and needless, they must be stopped". He said that
faction heads had agreed to study his proposal.
Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said Israel's actions showed any
ceasefire call by Abbas was "worthless".
The Islamist group and others said they would consider stopping
the rocket firing only if Israel first called off all of its
military operations in Gaza and the West Bank. Israel has rebuffed
similar demands in the past.
The arrests came after Hamas and other groups turned down
Abbas's call for a halt to the rocket firing.
Two months after they formed a unity government, Hamas and
Abbas' secular Fatah faction remain at loggerheads. Information
Minister Mustafa al-Barghouthi, speaking for the government as a
whole, urged international pressure on Israel.
Some 50 Palestinians have been killed in the latest round of
factional fighting between Hamas and Fatah. Israeli air strikes
over the last eight days have killed at least 35 Palestinians.
In a pre-dawn arrest raid, Israeli troops entered the West Bank
city of Nablus and took into custody Education Minister Naser
al-Shaer of Hamas, his wife said.
Israeli forces also seized at least three Hamas lawmakers, the
mayor and deputy mayor of Nablus and other Hamas officials in
neighboring towns and villages, Hamas officials said.
The Israeli army said in a statement that 33 people had been
arrested across the West Bank and were taken for questioning.
Palestinian government spokesman Ghazi Hamad said the arrests
displayed "a scale of escalation and Israeli arrogance" and called
for those arrested to be released.
"Through this ... aggression the Israeli government is once
again pushing the region into a cycle of violence and it bears the
full responsibility for the consequences resulting from such
irresponsible actions," Hamad said.
The Israeli army said in a statement: "The Hamas terror
organization is currently involved in enhancing the terror
infrastructure in the (West Bank) region, based on the model used
in the Gaza Strip. The organization exploits governmental
institutions to encourage and support terrorist activity."
A similar operation last year against Hamas ministers and
lawmakers in the West Bank sparked an international backlash.
Israel currently has 44 lawmakers in custody, 40 from Hamas.
Last year's swoop paralyzed the Palestinian parliament, but
detained Cabinet ministers were quickly replaced.
(China Daily via agencies May 25, 2007)
