The Islamic Jihad movement on Thursday condemned Israel for detaining one of its top political leaders in the northern West Bank town of Jenin and called for his immediate release.

Palestinian sources said that an Israeli army force backed by 50 armored vehicles and jeeps stormed the city of Jenin earlier in the day and arrested Sheikh Abdel Halim Izedein, 37, a prominent Islamic Jihad leader in the West Bank, and his brother Mohamed Izedein, 50, as well as a third Jihad member.

Khader Habib, a senior Islamic Jihad leader in Gaza, told reporters that the continuation of arrests and threats against the Islamic Jihad would never scare us or break out determination to continue with what we believe in.

Sheikh Izedein, was considered as one of the prominent Islamic Jihad leaders in the West Bank, but he was not listed among the wanted Palestinians by Israel.

An Israeli army source told Israel Radio that the Israeli soldiers carried out an intensive campaign of arrests in Jenin, and then they pulled out from it.

The raid came as the army was ordered to launch military offensives in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, one day after a Jihad suicide bomber blew himself up in a market in the coastal Israeli city of Hadera, killing five Israelis and wounding some 30 others.

Source: Xinhua