Middle East Hamas Cabinet Ministers Seized By Israel Troops

Taken from The Independent, UK, 25 May 2007
By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem

Israeli forces seized a Palestinian cabinet minister and 32 other Hamas officials in overnight West Bank sweeps designed to intensify pressure on the Islamic faction.

As Palestinian ministers outside Hamas condemned the detentions, the faction itself defiantly claimed it would use "any means" to free the detained officials and fired more Qassam rockets into Israel.

The latest move came as Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, said he was urging an end to the "absurd" rocket attacks but warned that air strikes would not halt them.

Troops moved into Nablus during the night and took the Palestinian Education minister Naser al-Shaer, three Hamas members of parliament, the pro-Hamas mayor and deputy mayor of the city and other Hamas officials in neighbouring towns and villages.

Mr Shaer's wife, Huda, said soldiers knocked on the door of their home and took him away. The mayors of Qalqiliya and Beita, and the head of the main Islamic charity in Nablus, Fayad al-Arba, were also detained. Mustafa Barghouti, the Palestinian Information minister and an independent, condemned the seizures as a "very serious escalation and an attack on Palestinian democratic institutions". He called on the international community to protest at what he said was an attack on the Palestinian Authority in breach of the Oslo agreements.

The new UN Middle East peace envoy, Michael Williams, a Briton, said that the move was "troubling" and declared, in a reference to an earlier wave of arrests of parliamentarians after the seizure of the Israeli corporal Gilad Shalit last year: "Of course legislators cannot be immune from the law. But what worries me is that in most cases, as I understand it, there haven't been any charges... let alone trials." The PA said the latest detentions brought to more than 40 the total of parliamentarians in custody.

The Israeli military declared: "The Hamas terror organisation is currently involved in enhancing the terror infrastructure in the [West Bank] region, based on the model used in the Gaza Strip. The organisation exploits governmental institutions to encourage and support terrorist activity."

Amir Peretz, the Defence minister, by contrast linked the arrests directly to the continued rocket fire, which killed an Israeli woman in the southern border town of Sderot this week, declaring on Army Radio: "Arrests are better than shooting. The arrest of these Hamas leaders sends a message to the armed organisations that we demand that this firing [of rockets] stop."

But Ghazi Hamad, spokesman for the Hamas cabinet members, said that 40 of the faction's PLC members were now in custody and accused Israel of "attempting to bring down the Palestinian system and create disruption and confusion." He repeated earlier promises that Hamas was ready to stop the firing of Qassam rockets, as part of a comprehensive reciprocal ceasefire in the West Bank and Gaza, adding: "If Israel rejects that, things will stay in the vicious circle."

Mark Regev, the Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, said: "Israel has always said that if a ceasefire is kept in Gaza we're willing to extend it to the West Bank. The trouble is that a ceasefire in Gaza has never been kept... It has been a sham. The idea of extending a failure is flawed one."

Meanwhile, a Palestinian was killed yesterday by Israeli tank fire near the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, while the Health Ministry said that a 40-year-old woman who had been wounded in an air strike last week had died in hospital. The woman, Amal Daoud, had been transferred to Israel for medical treatment after the attack.

A Palestinian fisherman, Said El-Atar, was killed by fire from Israeli warships stationed in waters opposite the beach in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahia, according to Palestinian sources. The Israeli military said it had opened fire on an abandoned fishing vessel beyond the permitted sailing zone. The military said it was investigating the incident.

A defiant statement from Hamas - the movement rather than its members in government - quoted by news agencies declared: "We will chase the occupation soldiers and the settlers in every inch of our occupied land and we announce that we give free hand to our cells to strike against the enemy in every place in Palestine."

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ISRAEL has staged fresh air strikes near the Gaza Strip residence of the Palestinian Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh, a day after European diplomats voiced concern over the arrest this week of 33 Hamas-linked politicians. Residents said a missile hit a caravan used by Hamas men guarding a street leading to Mr Haniyeh's home yesterday, wounding one person. "Haniyeh's home definitely was not the target," an Israeli Army spokeswoman said. Israeli officials have previously put Mr Haniyeh on notice that he and other Hamas political leaders could be targeted if cross-border rocket attacks continue. Well this is possible one way to main being the only democratically elected country in the Middle East - either kidnapp your enemies or invade and destroy neighbouring countries. Kool.