Palestinian government detains tens of Hamas

The Palestinian government began a campaign of detentions yesterday against members of the Hamas movement, the first campaign of its sort since Ehud Barak was elected as Israeli prime minister.

The Palestinian government has detained a number of the movement's members, including two leaders of the military wing, in addition to detaining the chief editor of El-Resalah newspaper and an assistant editor of the newspaper, the mouthpiece of the Islamist El-Khalas Party, which is close to Hamas.

Meanwhile, Mahmoud Abass (Abu Mazen), the secretary of the executive committee for P.L.O., announced that the Palestinian leadership will launch new Arab - international moves to work on reviving the peace process.

In press statements in Gaza, Abu Mazen said the Syrian contacts aim at convening a summit between the two sides, but the Palestinian side did not receive any positive reply from Damascus. He also pointed out that the Palestinians want coordination with all parties concerning the final status negotiations.