By Xinhua,
Ramallah : The security forces of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday arrested around 34 members of Hamas movement in the West Bank, Hamas said in an official statement.
Hamas movement said in the statement that the Palestinian security forces in the West Bank arrested 34 people, including senior members and journalists of the movement.
The arrests took place in the cities of Qalqilia, Tulkarem and Hebron in the West Bank, said Hamas, adding that Abbas and his security forces “are responsible for the life of those arrested.”
The forces arrested a reporter of the pro-Hamas al-Aqsa satellite television in southern West Bank city of Hebron, and detained another Hamas journalist in northern West Bank, it said.
Some senior members of the movement, as well as men of religion and engineers, were caught in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, it added.
The arrests in the West Bank were apparently a response to a Hamas crackdown on Abbas’ Fatah movement in the Gaza Strip. Fatah movement in Gaza said that Hamas arrested 160 of its members and supporters.
Hamas’ crackdown on Fatah movement came following Friday’s bombing attack on Hamas militants’ car near Gaza beach, in which five Hamas militants and an eight-year-old girl were killed.
Hamas has accused Fatah movement of being behind the attack. But Fahmi Za’arir, Fatah movement’s spokesman in the West Bank, denied that his movement was involved in the bombing attack.