Both Palestinian Hamas, Fatah condemn Israeli arrest of Hamas minister

Both Palestinian governing Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and its rival Fatah movement on Friday condemned the Israeli army for arresting a Hamas-led government minister in the West Bank city of Ramallah earlier in the day.

Palestinian security sources said that Israeli troops surrounded the house of Public Works Minister Abdel Rahman Zeidan and took him away earlier on Friday, while holding the rest of the family inside a room.

The Hamas-led government spokesman Ghazi Hamad said in a statement e-mailed to the press that the "kidnapping" of Zeidan aims at toppling the government and cut the way towards the moves of forming a national unity government.

The detention of Zeidan took place as the Israeli ground offensive in northern Gaza entered its third day, claiming more lives, he said, adding "Israel only seeks to kill and destruct and increase the number of victims in any way to satisfy the extremist right wing," said Hamad.

Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister Nasser al-Shaar also condemned the arrest of Zeidan, considering it an Israeli attempt to hinder an expected deal to swap a captured Israeli soldier for Palestinian prisoners.

Meanwhile, Jamal Nazzal, spokesman of the mainstream Fatah movement led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, also condemned the Israeli action.

"The arrests of ministers in the (Palestinian) government aims to practice more pressures on the Palestinian National Authority and on President Mahmoud Abbas in order to pass what Israel wants, " said Nazzal.

In June, Israel arrested most of Hamas ministers and some 20 Hamas lawmakers who are based in the West Bank, in response to the capturing of Israeli Corporal Gilad Shalit by Palestinian militant groups in the Gaza Strip. The Hamas-led government calls the arrests as "kidnappings".

Source: Xinhua