Israeli occupation terrorist forces kidnap Hamas elected leaders across the West Bank

Date: 19 / 03 / 2009  Time:  09:42
Nablus – Ma’an –

Israeli occupation terrorist forces kidnapped Hamas leaders across the West Bank early on Thursday in an apparent attempt to pressure the group in negotiations over the release of captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

High-ranking Hamas sources told Ma’an that Israeli forces stormed the houses of Hamas leaders in Nablus, Ramallah, Hebron and Bethlehem.

The outgoing Israeli cabinet decided on Tuesday to increase pressure on Hamas after indirect negotiations toward a prisoner swap stalled. Israel blamed Hamas for not compromising in the talks, while Hamas said Israel had made unacceptable demands to deport some prisoners, rather than releasing them to their homes.

The detainees were identified as:

Deputy Prime Minister Nasser As-Sha’er
Hamas political leader Adnan Asfour
Professor Issam Al-Shqar all from Nablus
Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) member Ayman Daraghmeh
Head of the deputies’ office Mazen Ar-Rimawi from Ramallah
PLC member Azzam Salhab from Hebron
PLC member Nizar Ramadan from Hebron
Khaled Tafesh from Bethlehem
Ra’fat Nassif from Tulkarem.

The wife of Nasser Al-Sha’er told Ma’an in a phone call that Israeli forces stormed their house in Nablus area at 2am and stayed there until 3.15am. After making several phone calls, the soldiers detained Al-Sha’er and left, she said.

The Israeli military said that it detained ten senior Hamas leaders in the West Bank in a joint operation between the military and the intelligence services.

After Palestinian fighters captured Gilad Shalit in 2006, Israel seized dozens of Palestinian lawmakers from the West Bank and Gaza. Rather than yielding to Israeli pressure, Hamas has not altered its demands that Israel release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Shalit, including the lawmakers.

There are more than 11,000 Palestinian political prisoners in Israel’s jails.

Hamas: Israel will fail to blackmail us through kidnapping our leaders in WB

[ 19/03/2009 - 11:48 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)--

The Hamas Movement highlighted Thursday that the kidnapping campaign waged by Israel against its leaders in the West Bank and the threats to escalate violations against Palestinian prisoners would never succeed in blackmailing it into making concessions on the prisoner swap deal or any issues related to the rights of the Palestinian people.

Dr. Salah Al-Bardawil, the spokesman for the Hamas parliamentary bloc, underlined in an exclusive statement to the PIC that all these repressive measures are exposed attempts to pressure Hamas and force it to release the Israeli captive soldier without any price.

Dr. Bardawil said that these Israeli attempts would be doomed to failure like previous ones because Hamas never retreated from its positions regarding the Palestinian rights and constants.

For his part, Dr. Ahmed Bahar, the acting speaker of the PLC, strongly denounced the kidnapping campaign waged by Israel against Hamas leaders and lawmakers in the West Bank, saying that this campaign is aimed to blackmail the Palestinian resistance into making concessions on the issues of occupied Jerusalem and prisoners and also accepting the international quartet's terms

In an exclusive statement to the PIC, Dr. Bahar, who is currently in Doha in line with a tour of a number of Arab and Muslim countries, called on the Palestinian resistance to cling to its demands regarding the swap deal and not to bow to Israel's blackmails.

In the same context, Abdel-Nasser Farwana, a specialist in prisoners' affairs, stated Wednesday that the IOA recently introduced new measures against Palestinian prisoners that are more repressive than the violations committed against detainees in Guantanamo prison.

Farwana added that the IOA escalated its blatant violations of international law regarding the rights of Palestinian prisoners in its jails and also stepped up its use of the terms "unlawful combatant" and "enemy combatants" against Gaza prisoners in an unprecedented way, which means they lost their basic rights mentioned in the Geneva convention and their detention would continue endlessly.

In another context, media sources reported that the IOA expanded the detention of three Hamas lawmakers and added six months to their previous sentences issued against them.

The family of imprisoned MP Mohamed Attal said that the IOA expanded his sentence from 38 to 44 months. The IOA also added six months to the sentences previously issued against MPs Fadl Hamdan and Khalil Al-Rabe'i.

Bardaweel: The Occupation government does not have the right to dictate conditions on prisoner deal

Thursday March 19, 2009 10:06 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agncies

Dr. Salah Bardaweel, a senior political leader of the Hamas movement stated on Wednesday at night that the Israeli occupation government is responsible for the failure of prisoner-swap talks, as it insisted on its preconditions and dictations.

In a press conference in Gaza, Barwaeel said that when the talks started three months ago, Hamas presented a list containing the names of 450 detainees who were sentenced to high terms, but Israel continued to delay its response and continued to dictate its positions which, caused the swap talks to collapse.

The Hamas leader demanded Egypt to officially declare that Israel is the side who is obstructing the indirect talks, and is also responsible for foiling all Egyptian efforts to achieve a compromise.

He added that the occupation obstructed the talks and insisted on linking the truce in Gaza with the release of the captured soldier, Gilad Shalit.

Bardaweel also stated that the statements of the outgoing Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, regarding “red lines” that Israel will not cross in a swap deal, as a “racist and criminal discrimination against the detainees who defended their people and their land”.

He further said that Hamas will not bow to Israeli threats and pressures, and will not be pushed into concessions.

“Our demands are clear, Egyptian mediators know that” Bardaweel said, “the detainees' issue is a holy and a humanitarian issue that requires sacrifice and struggle until liberating all detainees”.

At the end of his statement, Bardaweel reaffirmed Hamas' rejection to Israel's offer to deport the freed detainees, and called on the Palestinian people, the factions and the parents of the detainees to remain steadfast.

Israel takes more hostages to pressure Hamas to release terrorist soldier

[ 19/03/2009 - 08:35 AM ]

From Khalid Amayreh

AL-KHALIL, (PIC)--

The Israeli occupation army on Thursday raided many parts of the West Bank, abducting an undisclosed number of political leaders and lawmakers associated with the Palestinian Islamic movement.
 
Palestinian sources said heavily armed troops raided homes of Palestinian politicians shortly before dawn, terrorizing families and vandalizing property.
 
The troops arrested many political leaders and politicians including the former Palestinian deputy Prime Minister Nasseruddin al-Shaer, a lawmaker and university professor.
 
Al-Shaer’s wife said in a telephone interview from their home in Nablus that “ill-behaving soldiers” stormed the home at two o’clock.
 
“They stayed at the home for at least two hours and then they arrested my husband and left.”
 
Al-Shaer had been taken hostage several times in connection with his affiliation with the Islamic resistance movement, Hamas, and his opposition to the terrorist Israeli occupation of the Palestinian homeland.
 
Sources close to the movement said occupation troops raided the towns of al-Khalil (Hebron), Bethlehem, Ramallah in addition to Nablus. These towns are under a nominal Palestinian Authority (PA) control.
 
Other hostages reportedly abducted by occupation forces include Adnan Asfur, Prof. Issam al Ashkar, lawmaker Ayman Daraghmeh, lawmaker Abdul Jabbar al Fokaha, Mazen Rimawi. In al-Khalil, two lawmakers, Prof. Azzam Salhab and Nezar Ramadan, were abducted. In Bethlehem MP Khaled Tafesh was also abducted.
 
Both Ramadan and Salhab were only recently freed from a lengthy incarceration in Israeli dungeons and detention camps.
 
A Hamas spokesman in Bethlehem described the latest abductions as “acts befitting gangs and common criminals.”
 
“This is another proof that Israel is a criminal gang, not a state. So, this is another reason why Hamas will not recognize Israel,” said Yousuf (not his real name).
 
Israel, a state where the fascist-minded military establishment controls the justice system, routinely rounds up Palestinian activists and their relatives  and holds them as hostages or bargaining chips for the purpose of pressuring the Palestinian society to stop its enduring struggle for freedom and independence from Jewish colonialism and military occupation.
 
Israel continues to detain as many as 10,000 Palestinian political and resistance prisoners in detention camps all over the apartheid state.
 
Many of the prisoners, including nearly 40 lawmakers, are held for years without charge or trial.
 
Human rights organizations estimate that Israel arrested as many as 800,000 Palestinians since its occupation of the West Bank since 1967.
 
On Tuesday, the Israeli government instructed the “Justice Minister” to concoct ways to round up Palestinian activists from the West Bank in order to pressure the Hamas government to release an Israeli military prisoner.
 
Earlier this year, Israel waged a Nazi-like blitzkrieg against the Gaza Strip during which the Israeli occupation army carried out a series of massacres against the civilian population.
 
The 22-day campaign, in which lethal and internationally-prohibited weapons were used, killed more than 1,400 Palestinians, the vast bulk of them innocent civilians, including hundreds of children.
 
One of the undeclared goals of the blitz was to free the imprisoned soldier.