IDF detains PA parliament's secretary-general

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Written by Benji

After arresting Palestinian deputy PM Saturday, army nabs another Hamas legislator. PA officials believe that new wave of arrests was triggered by difficulties to release kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit

Palestinian sources in Ramallah reported Sunday that the IDF detained Mahmoud al-Ramahi, secretary-general of the Palestinian Legislative Council and a senior Hamas member.

Al-Ramahi is one of the last Hamas officials in Ramallah that had not been arrested in the recent military crackdown on the group's members in the West Bank.

Some two months ago, the army attempted to detain al-Ramahi and besieged his house.

On Saturday, Israeli soldiers detained the Palestinian deputy prime minister in what was the latest step in an ongoing crackdown against the ruling Hamas party.

Troops burst into the home of Nasser Shaer at around 4:30 a.m. and took him away, said the deputy prime minister’s wife, Huda.

She said her husband had been in hiding since Israel began its crackdown in late June after Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip infiltrated southern Israel and captured an Israeli soldier. She said he had rarely been home during that period.

'Hamas will not be defeated'

PA officials estimated that the current wave of arrests is linked to the difficulties Israel has encountering in brining to the release of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit. Palestinian sources said that the officials have been detained due to the fact that the Hamas leadership, and particularly head of the groups' politburo Khaled Mashaal, continue to raise obstacles to all international initiatives – and especially the Egyptian initiative – for a resolution to the crisis.

During the last weeks Israel has freed several Hamas senior members, including Labor Minister Mahmoud Barghouti. At the time it appeared as if a breakthrough in the crisis was nearing, but now Hamas members say that Israel's moves are unacceptable and that they are aimed at toppling the political Palestinian regime.

Hamas stated that Israel's steps will not defeat the movement, claiming that the officials' arrests amounted to blackmail, which go against international law. The group vowed that theses arrests will not affect the government and the movement's functioning.

Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh has in recent days defined the release of the jailed Hamas leaders as one of the conditions for a formation of the Palestinian unity government.

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