Israeli forces launched an extensive arrest
campaign in several West Bank cities on Thursday morning, culminating
in the arrest of the Palestinian minister of education, Nasser Addin
Ash-Sha'er, and former minister of public works, Abdur-Rahman Zeidan,
in addition to a number of Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC)
members and mayors. Some 33 Hamas-affiliated politicians and activists
are reported to have been arrested in this most recent attack on the
democratically elected Palestinian government.
Our Nablus
correspondent reported that the minister of education was apprehended
from his home in the Mu'ajeen area of Nablus in the northern West Bank
after the Israeli forces broke into the home.
Furthermore, the
Israeli forces arrested the Hamas members of the PLC in Nablus, Hamid
Al-Beitawi and Dawood Abu Seir. They also arrested the mayor of Nablus,
Adli Ya'ish; the mayor of Beita, Arab Ash-Sharafa; the director of the
Islamic endowments office in Nablus, Fayyad Al-Aghbar; and several
other Hamas-affiliated activists.
Also on Wednesday night,
dozens of Israeli military vehicles invaded the Rafidia and
Al-Makhfiyya areas of west Nablus city and apprehended Khalid Abu
Sharikh in Rafidia, our Nablus correspondent reported.
In
Qalqiliya in the northern West Bank, the Israeli forces also arrested
the mayor of the city, Sheikh Wajih Qawwas, in addition to an employee
in the directorate of education in Qalqiliya district, Muhammad Zeid,
aged 36.
In Hebron in the southern West Bank, the Israeli troops
apprehended a Hamas political leader, Sufyan Jamjoom, in the Rumman
Hill area.
In the Tulkarem area of the north-western occupied
West Bank, the Israeli forces invaded the city, the refugee camp and
the towns of Deir Al-Ghusun and 'Illar. The forces arrested three
Palestinian men including the former Hamas minister of public works,
Abdur-Rahman Zeidan.
Palestinian security sources and
eyewitnesses told our Tulkarem correspondent that an Israeli force
broke into the home of PLC member Abdur-Rahman Zeidan in Deir Al-Ghusun
and arrested him after carrying out a thorough search of his home.
Another
Israeli force broke into the home of an activist of the
Fatah-affiliated Al-Aqsa Brigades, Osaymar Al-Ashqar, in the village of
Seida, north east of Tulkarem. The soldiers broke the doors and
destroyed the furniture in the house, but failed to arrest Al-Ashqar
because he was not at home. The Israelis also broke into the homes of
Ahmad Odah, Majdi Al-Ashqar, Jamil Al-Ashqar, Muhammad Al-Ashqar and
Isa Al-Ashqar without arresting any of them.
The Israeli
forces also invaded the village of Beit Rima, north west of Ramallah
city, and arrested two members of the Bani Zeid municipality.
Eight
Israeli military vehicles invaded Beit Rima at around 2:00 am and broke
into the homes of Mazen Radwan Rimawi, 27, and Muhammad Al-Asmar
Rimawi, 29, before taking them to detention centres for interrogation.
Muhammad
Rimawi has been arrested five times before and he has served nine years
in Israeli jail. Mazen Rimawi is the director of Hamas' 'Change and
Reform' office in Ramallah. Another member of the Bani Zeid
municipality, Ala' Rimawi, is already in an Israeli prison serving
administrative detention.
The Palestinian minister of
education, Ash Sha'er, was apprehended in a previous Israeli sweep
against Hamas legislators and politicians in 2006 following the capture
of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit by Palestinian armed factions in
the southern Gaza Strip in June 2006. At the end of June 2006, the
Israeli army seized eight members of the Hamas cabinet, the speaker of
the PLC, and over 20 legislators.
As for the mayor of
Qalqiliya, Wajih Qawwas, he was arrested three times during the second
Palestinian intifada, and he was elected mayor of the city whilst in
prison after he got the highest number of votes in the 2005 elections.
He was also arrested in the June 2006 sweep of Hamas politicians.
Palestinian
minister of information Mustafa Barghouthi described the arrest of
senior Hamas leaders on Wednesday as a "massacre against democracy."
A
group of Palestinian doctors and academics have issued a press release
condemning Dr. Ash-Sha'er's arrest and calling on "the international
community, all academic institutions and all international civil
society organizations" to demand his release and the "protection of
civilian lives and property, as stipulated in international
humanitarian law and international human rights law such as the Fourth
Geneva Convention." Source: Global Research |
Middle East News 
