JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli President Reuven Rivlin on Monday ordered parliament to choose a prime minister within a 21-day deadline to avoid new elections.

"Beginning on Thursday for 21 days, the decision of who will take over the government is in the hands of Knesset members," Rivlin said a day after Benny Gantz declared he could not form a government.

"We are in a dark period in the history of Israel," he said.

This is the first time that the Knesset has been tasked with choosing a member of parliament to form a government, a last resort under Israeli law, when the personalities the president has named cannot form a government.

If the Knesset fails, new elections will be called, the third in less than a year, likely in March.

On the other hand, the Israeli occupation forces arrested, yesterday morning, Jerusalem Governor Adnan Ghaith, from his home in the city after the raid, for the 14th time.

An official in the governor's office said that Israeli intelligence and police officers raided the house of Governor Ghaith in the town of Silwan, south of Al Aqsa Mosque, and arrested him.

Ghaith has been arrested by Israeli police more than 13 times since taking office three years ago.

The occupation authorities prevented the governor from entering the West Bank for six months and imposed restrictions on his meetings. Ghaith called yesterday on the international community to confront the Israeli escalation in the Palestinian territories in general, and Jerusalem in particular.

On the other hand, the Israeli occupation forces launched a dawn campaign of arrests and raids in the homes of citizens in the West Bank.

According to local Palestinian sources, the Israeli army arrested eight Palestinians, who were allegedly wanted by him during a raid in different parts of the West Bank.

On the other hand, Israeli gunboats opened fire yesterday morning with heavy machine guns towards the boats of fishermen off the coast of the Gaza Strip.