Hamas leaders, MPs among several Palestinians kidnapped by Israel army

Dozens of Palestinian activists and Hamas leaders were kidnapped by the Israeli occupation forces at daybreak Wednesday in abduction sweeps rocking the West Bank.

A PIC news correspondent said Israeli army troops rolled into Ramallah’s western town of Beituniya at the crack of dawn and kidnapped the Hamas leader Hasan Yousef, also a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC).

The occupation soldiers ransacked Yousef’s family home before they handcuffed him and dragged him to an unidentified destination, his son, Ouways, told PIC, adding that his father was recently released from Israeli jails.

The Israeli forces further broke into the home of PLC member Khaled Sa’id (MP) in the northern occupied West Bank province of Jenin and subjected him to exhaustive questioning before they ordered him to turn himself in to intelligence officers at the Salem military camp, west of Jenin, for further interrogation.

The campaign culminated in the abduction of several of ex-prisoners and Hamas affiliates, along with a number of Fatah and Islamic Jihad leaders.

The list of detainees included ex-prisoner Yaser Mana’, Mohamed al-Jamal, Muhannad Shahda, Saher Ghatasha, Alaa Saber, Saleh Abu Asab, Tareq Ubaid, and Ali Senya, among several others.

Tension has been running high in the occupied Palestinian territories after the U.S. President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem—home to Muslims’ third holiest site, al-Aqsa Mosque—as Israel’s capital. The move sparked angry protests and universal condemnation.