One Hamas official arrested, vast moves to provide Palestinian elections a success

The Israeli occupation army yesterday arrested 12 Palestinian activists in the West Bank including one local official in the Islamic Resistance Hamas movement.

Israeli military sources explained it arrested Ramy Abdul Latif Muhammad Tabbah ( 26 year old) in Toulkarem city after he had been chased for the two past years under the charge of getting involved in a Palestinian attack on March 27th, 2002 in one Israeli hotel in Btania during the Jewish Easter resulted in killed 30 persons including the executor of the operation.

Hamas had then claimed responsibility for the operation after which Israel had announced the occupation of most of the cities of the West Bank in the course of a vast military operation.

The arrest operation came one day after Hamas renewed its previous position of approving a truce with Israel. The leading figure in the movement Hassan Youssef said in a recent statement for a Hamas official over peace with Israel that the movement is ready for a long term truce with Israel and to approve the establishment of a Palestinian state occupied by Israel in 1967 and in Gaza.

On the other hand, the Palestinian negotiations affairs minister Saeb Oreikat said that the chairman of the PLO executive committee Mahmoud Abbas noted in his recent meetings with Hamas that he had felt the change in the movement's stances giving no details or explanations.

Worthy mentioning that the Palestinian leadership authority recently sought to hold talks with Hamas leading figures with the aim of controlling conditions on the Palestinian arena prior to the Palestinian presidential elections.