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Israeli army arrests Hamas lawmaker in West Bank

Israel Materials 16 June 2011 15:27 (UTC +04:00)
The Israeli army arrested a lawmaker from the Islamist Hamas movement early Thursday near the southern West Bank city of Hebron, according to Hamas sources.
Israeli army arrests Hamas lawmaker in West Bank

The Israeli army arrested a lawmaker from the Islamist Hamas movement early Thursday near the southern West Bank city of Hebron, according to Hamas sources, DPA reported.

This brings to 14 the total number of Hamas lawmakers held in Israeli jails.

Soldiers surrounded the house of Samir Qadi in the village of Surif, north of Hebron, and arrested him, the sources said.

Qadi was in an Israeli jail for more than three years after several Hamas lawmakers and leaders in the West Bank were detained following the abduction of an Israeli soldier near the Gaza border in 2006. He was released in November 2009.

Two lawmakers from President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party and the leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine are also serving prison terms in Israel, the sources said.

Hamas alleged that the re-arrest of its lawmakers was aimed at sabotaging its reconciliation agreement with Fatah, which could pave the way for normalization of relations between the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip and Fatah-ruled West Bank.

The two groups signed an Egyptian-drafted pact of reconciliation in Cairo on May 4.

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