Members of Palestinian El-Khalas party released

The secretary general of the Islamic party El-Khalas, Yehie Mousa, said that Palestinian police released members of the party's political bureau after being detained for more than 10 hours, yet another 16 remained detained.

Mousa said that 10 members of those arrested on last Saturday were released yesterday, but the police continued to hold the party's spokesman, Ghazi Hamad, with another 15 members that were detained on the same day.

A force from the Palestinian police broke into the party's main headquarters on Saturday during the meeting of the party's political bureau and consultation council, detaining 11 of the party's leaders who were at the headquarters.

A source in El-Khalas, close to the Hamas movement, said that the detentions came after the party issued a statement in which it criticized the Palestinian state security court, which is examining the murder of a Palestinian police officer by three persons who are accused by the Palestinian Authority of belonging to the Hamas movement, which asserts that they have not returned to its ranks.