To Solidify Power, Palestinians Arrest Rivals
Political Groups Accuse Each Other of Using Sweeps for Political Leverage
A Hamas list of names of detainees given to The Associated Press showed that among them were several university professors and mosque leaders, seven municipal council members, school teachers and at least five journalists for Hamas-affiliated media outlets.
Fifty have been held for nine months or more and only six have been put on trial, where all were convicted of weapons possession, Ramahi said.
Dr. Farid Abu Dheir, a journalism teacher at Al Najah University in the West Bank city of Nablus, said he was held for five days in June, and asked whether a press office he runs receives Hamas funding. He said investigators showed him confessions of activists they said detailed the structure of Hamas institutions and funding.
In the town of Tulkarem, 17-year-old high school student Sameh Qarout was taken from his home by Palestinian military intelligence on June 24 and grilled for three days about his friends, said his father, Sadiq, adding that the boy had just left the hospital after having his appendix removed when he was detained.
The detainees also included a 68-year-old doctor known for involvement with Islamic charities, two Nablus businessmen and five women, two of whose husbands are also detained.
A high ranking Palestinian security official said Hamas members are often released after they hand over money, weapons and information. The arrests seek to "strip Hamas of its weapons and financial nets, to keep the movement powerless and unable to repeat its military coup in the West Bank," he said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.
Abbas and his security chiefs insist that only those suspected of security offenses are detained.
West Bank police spokesman Adnan Damiri said the Palestinian Authority has about 400 detainees, some of them held for hours or days. Not all are put on trial, he said. Most of the arrests stem from three charges, he said: weapons possession, money laundering and "incitement" against the Palestinian Authority.
