Post by Salem6 on May 25, 2007 12:07:04 GMT
By ALI DARAGHMEH
Associated Press Writer
NABLUS, West Bank (AP) - Israel rounded up a Palestinian Cabinet minister and 32 other Hamas leaders in the West Bank before dawn Thursday, trying a new tactic in its campaign to pressure the Islamic militant group into halting rocket barrages from the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian president condemned the arrests, saying they would hinder his efforts to restore a truce with Israel, while Hamas threatened to retaliate with attacks inside the Jewish state.
The arrests reflected an Israeli decision to target the Hamas political leadership - but not necessarily with the lethal airstrikes it has staged over the past week on Hamas targets.
On Thursday, Israel carried out several airstrikes in Gaza, all directed at Hamas training bases and command posts. A huge plume of black smoke rose over Gaza City after an afternoon attack, but there were no serious injuries, Palestinian medics said.
Late Thursday, Israeli aircraft hit four targets in southern Gaza, three from Hamas and one from Islamic Jihad, the military said. A police officer and a child were wounded, medics said.
Earlier, at sundown, two mortar shells fired from Gaza exploded at Erez, the main crossing for people between the Palestinian territory and Israel. No was hurt, but there was considerable damage to two of the processing lanes, and Israel closed the crossing, the military said.
More than 40 Palestinians died in Israeli air raids over the past 10 days, and a rocket killed an Israeli woman Monday. The rocket barrages have severely disrupted life in the southern Israel area near Gaza, and thousands of frightened residents have fled.
Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz said the arrests in the West Bank were part of Israel's attempt to neutralize Hamas and lessen the bloodshed.
``Arrests are better than shooting,'' he told Israeli Army Radio. ``The arrest of these Hamas leaders sends a message to the military organizations that we demand that this (rocket) firing stop.''
But Hamas remained defiant: ``We will chase the occupation soldiers and the settlers in every inch of our occupied land, and we announce that we give free hand to our cells to strike against the enemy in every place in Palestine'' - a term the Islamic group uses to include Israel.
The office of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, a member of Hamas, demanded the immediate release of the detainees and urged the United Nations and European Union to impose sanctions on Israel.
The EU's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and called for both sides to halt the violence. ``The rockets and the Israeli response have to stop,'' he told reporters after the meeting.
Abbas, a moderate in the Fatah movement, said that the arrests by Israel hurt peace efforts and that airstrikes weren't stopping the rocket salvos.
But he also condemned what he called the ``absurd'' rocket fire by Palestinian extremists and said he was trying to persuade militant groups to halt. ``They must stop so we can reach a truce with Israel,'' Abbas said.
Just after the meeting, Israeli aircraft carried out two more attacks, hitting an empty Hamas base in Gaza City and a base in central Gaza, Palestinian security officials said. The Israeli military said only that it struck Hamas emplacements.
Four civilians suffered slight injuries from flying glass and debris in the Gaza City attack, medics said. No one was hurt in the second strike.
The most prominent Hamas leader arrested overnight was Education Minister Nasser Shaer, considered a pragmatist. His wife, Huda, said soldiers knocked on the door of their home in Nablus and took him away, along with his computer. Israel also detained Shaer for a month last year, before a judge ordered his release.
Israel already held 40 Palestinian lawmakers from Hamas, including parliament speaker Abdel Aziz Duaik. They were detained after Hamas-linked gunmen abducted an Israeli soldier last June. The idea was to trade the lawmakers for the soldier, but no deal took place.
Also among those rounded up Thursday were former Cabinet minister Abdel Rahman Zeidan, legislators Hamed Bitawi and Daoud Abu Ser, the mayors of the towns of Nablus, Qalqiliya and Beita, and the head of the main Islamic charity in Nablus.
Israel has failed to quell rocket fire over the years, despite large-scale ground offensives that caused multiple casualties and widespread damage in areas used by militants.
Abbas' security forces have made few visible efforts to halt rocket salvos.
Instead, the rocket attacks diminish when Palestinian militants decide to lower the flame. Intentionally or not, the latest flare-up with Israel stopped a month of bloody internal clashes between Hamas and Fatah security forces in Gaza.
Israel's military said Hamas fired six rockets into Israel on Thursday, though Hamas claimed firing 14, still less than previous days.
Alone Ben-David, military analyst for Israel's Channel 10 TV, said the decrease in rocket fire was a hint that Hamas might have achieved its goals and was ready to wind down the crisis. Ben-David added, however, that firing would likely escalate if Israel killed a top Hamas commander in an airstrike.
www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6658618,00.html