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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Israel arrests senior Hamas MP in West Bank |
| 2010-11-11 |
| [Emirates 24/7] Israeli forces jugged senior Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, MP Mahmud Al Ramahi at his home in the West Bank city of Ramallah overnight, his Islamist movement and Israeli forces said on Wednesday. Ramahi, who is secretary of the Paleostinian Legislative Council and the body's third most senior member, was nabbed at around 3am (0100 GMT), Hamas sources in Ramallah told AFP. An army spokeswoman said Ramahi had been nabbed "for being involved in recent Hamas activities." "He was taken in for security questioning," she told AFP, adding that Ramahi was one of 11 people jugged by Israeli forces in the West Bank overnight. Ramahi's arrest came after representatives of Hamas and the Fatah party of Paleostinian president Mahmud Abbas started a meeting in Damascus on Tuesday night for reconciliation talks. The long-time political rivals have been fiercely divided since Hamas seized power in Gazoo in a bloody rout of Abbas's forces in 2007, limiting Abbas's authority to the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Several previous attempts to reconcile the groups have failed, with each side accusing the other of undermining trust by persecuting political rivals in the territory under its control. Omar Abdul Razek, a senior Hamas official in the West Bank, told AFP Ramahi's arrest appeared to be an attempt by Israel to undermine the reconciliation talks. "There is no justification for Ramahi's arrest unless Israel's aim is to sabotage the reconciliation process," Abdul Razek told AFP. |
| Posted by:Fred |