| Followup with Hamas hilarity ... |
RAMALLAH, West Bank - Israel launched a new crackdown on Hamas on Thursday, rounding up top leaders in the West Bank after the failure of efforts to secure the release of a soldier held by the Islamist rulers of the Gaza Strip. Security forces seized 12 senior Hamas leaders in pre-dawn raids in the occupied West Bank, including four members of the Palestinian legislative council, Hamas and the army said.
The Islamists denounced the action as blackmail following the collapse of Egyptian-brokered efforts to reach an agreement on an Israel-Hamas prisoner swap.
| And who would know more about blackmail than Hamas? |
The Palestinian Authority, headed by Hamass political foes Fatah, also slammed the arrests and called on the international community to intervene. These men have been the leaders of the ongoing effort to restore the administrative branch of the Hamas terror organisation in the region, while attempting to strengthen the power and influence of Hamas, an Israeli military spokeswoman said.
| Restore the administrative branch of a terror organization. I actually know what he's saying. Scary. |
Thirty-six Hamas MPs have been in jail since a major crackdown in the West Bank that followed the capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit by Gaza militants including Hamas fighters in a deadly cross-border raid in June 2006. Among those arrested were Nasseredin al-Shaer, who was deputy premier in the short-lived Hamas government formed in March 2006, and two senior Hamas officials in the West Bank, Raafat Nassif and Adnan Asfur, the group said.
| Any chance of these three being cross-fired? |
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