Israeli forces launched an extensive arrest campaign in several West Bank cities on Thursday morning, culminating in the arrest of the Palestinian minister of education, Nasser Addin Ash-Sha'er, in addition to a number of Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) members and mayors.

Our Nablus correspondent reported that the minister of education was apprehended from his home in the Mu'ajeen area of Nablus in the northern West Bank after the Israeli forces broke into the home.
Furthermore, the Israeli forces arrested the Hamas members of the PLC in Nablus, Hamid Al-Beitawi and Dawood Abu Seir. They also arrested the mayor of Nablus, Adli Ya'ish; the mayor of Beita, Arab Ash-Sharafa; the director of the Islamic endowments office in Nablus, Fayyad Al-Aghbar; and several other Hamas-affiliated activists.
Also on Wednesday night dozens of Israeli military vehicles invaded the Rafidia and Al-Makhfiyya areas of west Nablus city and apprehended Khalid Abu Sharikh in Rafidia, our Nablus correspondent reported.

In Qalqiliya in the northern West Bank, the Israeli forces also arrested the mayor of the city, Sheikh Wajih Qawwas, in addition to an employee in the directorate of education in Qalqiliya district, Muhammad Zeid, aged 36.

In Hebron in the southern West Bank, the Israeli troops apprehended a Hamas political leader, Sufyan Jamjoom, in the Rumman Hill area.

The Palestinian minister of education, Ash Sha'er, was apprehended in the previous Israeli campaign against the speaker and members of the PLC following the abduction of the Israeli soldier in June 2006. The minister was released later.

As for the mayor of Qalqiliya, Wajih Qawwas, he was arrested three times during the second Palestinian intifada, and he was elected mayor of the city whilst in prison after he got the highest number of votes in the 2005 elections.

Palestinian minister of information Mustafa Barghouthi described the arrest of senior Hamas leaders on Wednesday as a "massacre against democracy."

PHOTO CAPTION

Israeli soldiers arrest an international activist during a protest against Israel's controversial separation barrier in the West Bank village of Umm Salamona, near Bethlehem May 18, 2007. (REUTERS)

Maan