DHAKA: Israel’s army arrested three senior members of the Islamist Hamas movement overnight, Palestinian security sources said on Thursday, in the second such arrest operation this week.

The three men, Jamal Tawil, Hussein Abu Kwayk and Faraj Romana, were arrested in the West Bank city of Ramallah, reports france24.com.

All of them are senior West Bank members of Hamas, the movement which governs the Gaza Strip.

An Israeli army spokesman would only say that three unnamed Palestinians were arrested, but gave no further details.

Hamas has ruled Gaza since it forcibly took over the territory in June 2007, but many of its members remain in the West Bank, which is ruled by the rival Fatah movement of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

Hamas condemned the arrests as a conspiracy by Israel, Washington and the Palestinian Authority linked to ongoing peace talks, which the group firmly opposes.

‘The arrests the Israeli occupation is carrying out... are a continuation of Israeli hostility and crimes against the Palestinian people,’ Hamas said in a statement.

‘They pave the way for Zionist projects such as the negotiations, which are dangerous and amount to a surrender,’ it said, condemning the ‘silence’ of the Palestinian Authority over the arrests.

‘This comes as part of American-Israeli coordination with the PA... as a service for American interests and to protect Israel`s security,’ it added.

BDST: 1942 HRS, OCT 31, 2013
RoR/JCK