Israel arrested more than 60 Hamas members in the West Bank on Wednesday night, including government ministers, lawmakers and senior Hamas operatives for their membership in a terror organization.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry says it has demonstrated restraint since Hamas came to power in the Palestinian Authority in January. But a recent escalation of violence has prompted the Israeli government to take tougher action.
Palestinian armed groups launched an attack on a military post on Sunday, killing two Israeli soldiers and abducting a third. Israeli civilian Eliyahu Asheri, an 18-year-old who has been missing since Sunday, was found dead on Wednesday night. The Popular Resistance Committees took credit for his murder.
Israeli communities near Gaza have increasingly come under fire from Qassam missiles being fired from the Gaza Strip.
“Recent events,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry said, “prove that the results of the elections in the Palestinian Authority were translated into a government policy of terrorism.”
Israel says the arrests are a legal criminal procedure, made with the intention of questioning those who were arrested.
The Israeli army entered Gaza on Tuesday night with the aim of securing the release of Cpl. Gilad Shalit, the soldier who was kidnapped on Sunday.
This is the most expansive operation of the Israeli army in Gaza since Israel withdrew troops and civilians from the area last September.
Hamas members of the Palestinian parliament condemned what Hamas is calling Israel’s “kidnapping operation” of senior Hamas members. Officials said Israel’s actions are a “dangerous precedent and an international crime for which the Zionist government must be punished. It is an open war on a democratically elected government and parliament.”