[ 06/08/2011 - 01:04 PM ]
GAZA, (PIC)-- Ismail al-Ashqar, who represents Hamas on the Palestinian Legislative Council, has called on Fatah to pressure the security agencies into ending their persecution of elements from Hamas in the West Bank as the two parties gear for a long awaited reconciliation talks in Cairo.
‘’It’s clear that there is a stream within the Fatah movement that has been harmed by reconciliation, and that this stream is uninterested in following through with reconciliation,’’ Ashqar said in comments ahead of the meeting due for Sunday.
‘’That is why whenever calls coincide with applying the reconciliation issue, the security services in the West Bank launch a campaign of wide-scale arrests against the people and supporters of Hamas in the West Bank, as happened last night in Al-Khalil,’’ he said.
Dozens of Hamas supporters in Al-Khalil reported receiving summonses on Thursday and Friday. Some eight civilians have recently been taken in the arrest sweep.
Meanwhile, the Switzerland-based Rights for All organization has recently condemned the practices of the West Bank security agencies, with focus on the restrictions made on press freedoms.
This came after reporter Magdalene Hassouna has been summoned to be interviewed by the security forces over stories she covered in the West Bank.
Rights for All chairman Anwar Gharbi said in a statement that the repeated summonses were aimed at silencing her and ‘’limiting her personal freedoms’’ as the orders came just days after Hassouna covered a sit-in against political imprisonment in Nablus.
Nablus security forces arrested two of the reporter’s brothers after she publicly declared on her Facebook page her refusal to respond to the repeated summonses.
Gharbi further threatened to ask the UN Human Rights Council to take ‘’significant measures’’ against the Palestinian Authority should Hassouna continue to be harassed.
Dozens handed summonses, six arrested amid persecution of Hamas in West Bank[ 06/08/2011 - 09:59 AM ]
AL- KHALIL, (PIC)-- Dozens have been handed summonses and at least eight have been arrested as the Palestinian Authority’s security agencies continue to target Hamas supporters in the West Bank.
Dozens of Hamas supporters in the southern West Bank governorate of Al-Khalil have reported being handed summonses on Friday and Thursday. Most of those targeted were university students and former prisoners in the Israeli and PA prisons.
The West Bank security agencies nabbed two men in Al-Shyoukh, and a large number of armed elements from the agency violently raided the Al-Khalil city residence of a local there without report of arrest, sources close to the family have reported.
Four more men who have yet to be identified were also seen apprehended in Al-Khalil city while dispersing after congregational prayers.
In Nablus, arrested were the two brothers of reporter Magdalene Hassouna after their home was raided.
Our correspondent there says the arrest came to pressure Hassouna into turning herself into security agencies after she had publicly refused to respond to prior summonses on her Facebook page.
River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian
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