Israel arrests 33 senior Hamas members
Pastor Dale Morgan
Israel arrests 33 senior Hamas members*
POSTED: 1504 GMT (2304 HKT), May 24, 2007
Story Highlights
• Two mayors in West Bank, parliament members among those Israel arrested
• Palestinian official calls arrests "massacre to Palestinian democracy"
• Six Palestinians injured in Israeli airstrike in Gaza City,
Palestinian sources say
JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israeli forces early Thursday arrested more than 30
Palestinian Hamas leaders during raids on their homes and offices in the
West Bank as part of a crackdown on Hamas and its militant apparatus,
which has pounded the Jewish state with hundreds of rockets.
The move was described as "a massacre to Palestinian democracy" in a
news release from Palestinian Information Minister Mustafa Barghouti,
who is an independent politician.
Israel also kept up pressure on Hamas militants in Gaza, continuing its
air assault on targets there Thursday.
One airstrike hit the Gaza City offices of the Palestinian executive
force, a militia that reports to the Hamas-controlled Palestinian
interior ministry, according to Palestinian security sources. Six
Palestinians were injured, the sources said.
The Israel Defense Forces confirmed an airstrike on a Hamas post in Gaza
City but offered no details.
Another airstrike hit a Hamas post in central Gaza, Israeli military and
Palestinian security sources said. There were no initial reports of
casualties.
The IDF also carried out two other airstrikes overnight in Gaza.
Israeli security forces arrested 33 senior Hamas members in the
overnight West Bank raids, an IDF spokesman said Thursday.
Those include Palestinian Education Minister Nasser al-Shaer, the mayors
of Nablus and Qalqilya, parliamentarians and senior Hamas activists,
according to the IDF.
With the arrests, 41 Palestinian legislators are now being held in
Israeli jails, Barghouti said.
Al-Shaer was arrested last year during an Israeli crackdown on Hamas
militants after the June 25 kidnapping of Israeli soldier Cpl. Gilad
Shalit from an Israeli border post near Gaza. After a month in Israeli
detention, al-Shaer was released because of a lack of evidence.
With the overnight arrests, Israel has made it clear that it is
targeting all of Hamas, not just the military wing responsible for the
rocket attacks.
Nablus Mayor Adli Yaesh is a moderate member of Hamas, a businessman who
counts Israeli Jews among his business partners and oldest friends.
Yaesh, who was interviewed by CNN last year, owns the largest Mercedes
dealership in the West Bank.
He has become close friends with auto parts dealer Udi Rubovitz, an
Israeli who lives 30 miles away in Tel Aviv.
Rubovitz invited Yaesh to his son's bar mitzvah, but he was unable to
travel to Tel Aviv because of security restrictions so he sent 10 boxes
of baklava pastries instead.
"I gave it out at my son's bar mitzvah and told everyone, 'This is from
Nablus,' " Rubovitz said.
In his news release, Barghouti said the arrests are "a reminder that all
Palestinian people and institutions remain to suffer savage occupation."
Hamas militants in Gaza have launched hundreds of Qassam rockets into
Israel in recent weeks.
That has prompted deadly airstrikes from the Israeli military, targeting
Hamas militants and rocket-launching sites in Gaza.
Early Wednesday, Israeli military forces "briefly" penetrated deep into
the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis to conduct an operation "to prevent
terror activity," an army spokesman said.
During the operation several people were detained temporarily, he said.
According to Palestinian security sources, seven farmers were arrested,
then released.
Israeli troops and settlers withdrew from Gaza in September 2005, ending
their 38-year occupation of the region. Since then, Israeli ground
forces have made brief incursions into the Palestinian-controlled territory.
The West Bank, meanwhile, remains occupied by Israel. The Palestinian
government is based in the West Bank city of Ramallah and is ruled by
the Hamas party.
Hamas came to power in parliamentary elections in January 2006 after
more than a decade of Fatah rule over the Palestinian Authority. But the
United States and Israel consider Hamas a terrorist organization, and
the European Union joined them in cutting off aid over the group's
refusal to recognize Israel's right to exist.
In addition to Hamas, Israel also has cracked down on Islamic Jihad
militants in the West Bank.
Twenty Islamic Jihad terror operatives, including senior members, were
arrested this week in Bethlehem, Israeli security sources said. They
were taken for questioning by security forces, the sources said.
Islamic Jihad has planned and attempted to carry out attacks against
Israeli civilians and IDF forces, especially in the Bethlehem area, the
sources said.
CNN's Ben Wedeman contributed to this report.