Israeli army forces arrested 21 Palestinians in several actions
in West Bank towns on Tuesday after breaking into houses,
Palestinian security sources said, adding that a senior militant
leader was among the detainees.
The sources said that a senior leader of al-Aqsa Martyrs
Brigades, the armed wing of Fatah Movement, was arrested in one of
the operations in northern West Bank. The sources identified him as
Mohammed Hanaishe.
Meanwhile, Israeli Radio reported that 13 of the detainees were
belonging to Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), while five others
were members of Fatah movement and two Islamic Jihad (Holy War)
activists. The arrested were from Bethlehem, Nablus, Ramallahand
Hebron.
A wife of a Palestinian prisoner from Nablus city was also
detained in the actions, according to the sources. Israel carries
out daily arrestment campaigns and house-to-house search in West
Bank cities, arresting a number of Palestinians in every raid. The
Israeli operations in West Bank increase the number of prisoners
held in Israel to more than 10,000.
Three Palestinian militant groups including Izz el-Deen
al-Qassam Brigades, armed wing of the ruling Hamas movement,
snatched the Israeli soldier in a deadly cross-border raid on an
Israeli army post on June 25.
The kidnappers conditioned returning of the captive soldier on
the release of 1,000 Palestinian and Arab prisoners in Israeli
jails, which was rejected by Israel.
(Xinhua News Agency August 9, 2006)
