Israeli military detains over 100, including senior Hamas figures

A senior Palestinian official has accused Israel of violating international laws by arresting over 100 Palestinians in its search for three Israeli teenagers who went missing from the occupied West Bank on Thursday night.

The Palestinians, among them top members of Hamas and members of the group's Legislative Council, were arrested in and around Hebron and across the West Bank in a joint military, police and Shin Bet operation, according to an Israeli military statement.

"The arrest campaign is unjustified and an act of collective punishment," Palestinian minister of prisoners' affairs Shawqi al-Ayssa said on Sunday.

In a press statement, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zohri urged the international community to intervene to stop what he called "Israel's crimes" against the Palestinians.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military locked down several Palestinian towns and cities in the West Bank. Hebron and its environs were locked down at midnight on Sunday, with the closure of Bethlehem taking effect hours later.

A senior Israeli military source said that the closures and arrests were aimed at collecting intelligence on the whereabouts of three Jewish teens who Israel claims were kidnapped by Palestinian militants. Israel has deployed 2,000 soldiers to conduct the manhunt and make the arrests.

The teenagers, two aged 16 and one aged 19, are students of a Jewish religious school in the West Bank. Israeli officials say they went missing as they returned home for the weekend on Thursday night.

Hamas blamed

Speaking at the start of a weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Palestinian Islamist organization Hamas was to blame for the alleged kidnapping.

"Today I can say that the kidnap was executed by Hamas," said Netanyahu.

However, Palestinian officials say the story seems unlikely because the area where the teenagers went missing is under full Israeli military control.

"The Israeli government cannot blame the Palestinians for security issues in areas that are not controlled by them," said Ehab Bseiso, the spokesman for the new Palestinian unity government.

Asked about Netanyahu's claim that Hamas kidnapped the teenagers, Hanan Ashrawi, a senior Palestinian official, said, "This is something we have no information on."

The incident comes two weeks after the two main Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas, established a historic unity government at a signing ceremony on June 2. Israel has condemned the new government, repeating its assertion that Hamas is a "terrorist organization" and criticizing the United States for offering to work with it.

'Harsh consequences'

On Sunday, Netanyahu said the alleged abduction illustrated the inherent dangers of the Palestinian unity government and said that he had warned for months against the "harsh consequences" of the new alliance between Hamas and Fatah. On Saturday night, after lengthy consultations with his defense chiefs at the nation's military headquarters in Tel Aviv, Netanyahu said in a televised statement that his government was doing "everything it can and more" to bring the victims home, demanding that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas do "everything that's required" to assist the efforts.

"We view Abbas and the Palestinian National Authority as responsible for any attack against Israel launched from their territory, either the West Bank or the Gaza Strip," said Netanyahu.

Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon said on Saturday the three kidnapped Israelis were presumed to be alive.

Xinhua-AP

(China Daily 06/16/2014 page12)