Israel releases Hamas cabinet minister

Israel on Thursday released Palestinian Minister of Jerusalem Affairs Khaled Abu A'rafa, a few hours after he was detained by Israeli police, local Ha'aretz daily reported on its website.

Abu A'rafa, also a senior Hamas member, was apparently en route to the office of his Fatah predecessor Ziad Abu Ziad for a handover ceremony when he was arrested along with his bodyguard who was shortly set free, according to the report.

Israeli security sources confirmed the arrest, saying that Abu A'rafa, a resident of the East Jerusalem village of Abu Dis, was detained for trying to enter the Palestinian territories with his Israeli ID card.

Israeli border police in jeeps appeared to have been waiting for Abu A'rafa and stopped his car as it headed toward Azzariyeh, a place close to Eastern Jerusalem. said Hamas officials.

"They stopped the car and asked the minister to get out and when he refused, they forced him by pointing the rifle in his face, " a Hamas source said.

Israelis are banned from entering the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Ahmed Jalajel, a photographer for the Arabic Al-Quds daily, was in the car with the minister when he was taken into custody.

"They asked us for ID and they said 'get out,'" Jalajel said. " He (Abu A'rafa) said, 'I am not getting out' and then the police opened the car and pushed him out."

"They asked him to sit down on the ground and then they checked the ID. They asked him to get into their jeep. He refused, then they pushed him into the jeep," Jalajel said, adding that he tried to take a picture but the Israeli police broke his camera.

It is the first time that Israel arrested a Palestinian minister in the Hamas-led new government, sworn in last week after winning a landslide victory in January's parliamentary elections.

Abu A'rafa, a Jerusalem resident born in 1961, has been arrested by Israel several times in the past for alleged involvement in anti-Israel violence.

Hamas denounced the Israeli detention of Abu A'rafa as a move aimed to pile pressures on the Hamas cabinet.

Hamas, or the Islamic Resistance Movement, has called for Israel's destruction through armed resistance and refused to renounce violence, recognize Israel's right to exist and accept interim peace deals.

Source: Xinhua