Report: Israel arrests 5 PNA intelligence officers

Israel arrested five senior Palestinian National Authority (PNA) officers in the West Bank Friday morning, for the first time in about three years, local news service Ynet reported.

Israeli defense establishment confirmed the number of Palestinian officers arrested, but did not give additional details about the circumstances of their detention, said the report.

Citing Palestinian sources, the report said talks are being held between the PNA and Israel in a bid to secure their release.

All five of those detained near the West Bank village of Salfitare officers in the Palestinian General Intelligence Service (GIS), said the report.

A Palestinian security source in Salfit said the arrests were apparently made against the backdrop of an investigation currently being carried out by the GIS against a man suspected of collaborating with Israel.

The PNA suspects that the arrests are another attempt to weaken the PNA in the shadow of the political dispute between Israel and the Palestinians, said Ynet.

The arrests came at a sensitive time in relations between Israel and the PNA. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said in an interview with the BBC Arabic service that there would be no peace talks with Israel as long as the settlement construction continued.

Abbas indicated that his people may adopt a new type of struggle against Israel, saying that "Those who have to resist are the people, and there are different types of resistance, like in (the West Bank villages of) Bilin and Naalin, where people are injured everyday."

Source: Xinhua