Palestinian Authority forces arrest 11 Hamas members in West Bank

Ramallah – The Hamas movement on Monday said that security forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas arrested 11 of its members in various West Bank cities.

Hamas said in a press statement that forces from the Palestinian Preventive Service and the Palestinian General Intelligence Service arrested the 11 members in the cities of Nablus, Ramallah and Qalqilyah.

The movement said that the detainees include teachers, university students and prisoners recently released from Palestinian Authority (PA) and Israeli jails.

Hamas said that the wave of arrests came a day after the cancellation of a meeting in Cairo between Hamas’ Politburo Chief Khaled Meshaal and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The two leaders were expected to name the head of the national unity government hat would be formed in accordance with the unity agreement.

Azzam Al-Ahmed, a member of Fatah Central Committee and head of its team to Cairo reconciliation talks with Hamas, said that huge differences between the two movements over the identity of the premier of the new Palestinian unity government led to the postponing of the meeting.

Palestinian sources said that Egypt sponsored contacts between the two movements to bridge the gap, but these contacts did not succeed.

Abbas nominated Fayyad to lead the new government, but Hamas refused, since it considers Fayyad part of the Palestinian split and that he “has driven the West Bank into debt.”

The Palestinian President fears that failure to appoint Fayyad would prompt the US and EU to suspend financial aid to the Palestinians. The West sees Hamas as a terrorist organization. He also fears that Israel would suspend the transfer of tax revenues to the PA.

In August 2009, Fayyad announced a two-year plan to build Palestinian national institution and lay the infrastructure of an independent state for the future Palestinian statehood they want the United Nations to recognize in September.

In September 2010, the US-brokered peace talks between Zionist Israel and the Palestinians collapsed after Zionist Israel refused to extend a 10- month moratorium over freezing settlement constructions in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.