The Israeli occupation forces stormed the city of Nablus (in the northern West Bank) and arrested the two leaders of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) Sheikh Adnan Asfour and the former member of the Palestinian Legislative Council Sheikh Yasser Mansour, after storming their homes after midnight last night.

The occupation forces arrested Sheikh Adnan Asfour (58 years) from his home in the Al-Makhfiya neighborhood, after storming him and smashing its doors.

The young man, Sheikh Adnan’s son, said that a large number of heavily armed soldiers raided the house at about 2 am, after "violently" smashing the doors, and took the Sheikh detained after they tied him up.

Asfour, the son, explained - in a call with Al Jazeera Net - that the soldiers were "violent" in breaking into and smashing the door of the house and in dealing with the family during arrest, and they did not conduct any field investigation with them or his father.

The occupation broke the locks during the storming of the house of Sheikh Adnan Asfour in the Al-Makhfiya neighborhood of Nablus (Al-Jazeera)

In the Zawata area (west of Nablus), large Israeli forces stormed the house of Sheikh Yasser Mansour (54 years) after violently storming his house and took him to military detention mechanisms.

The prisoners Asfour and Mansour were previously arrested by the Israeli occupation several times and spent years in prisons.

These arrests come at a time when the Palestinians are preparing for the legislative elections next May.

The human rights defender and prisoner affairs expert, Fouad Al-Khuffash, said that these arrests are a direct interference in the preparation of the Palestinian elections, and are direct messages to Hamas and the Hamas leadership before the elections.

Al-Khuffash explained in an interview with Al-Jazeera Net that this interference in the Palestinian scene before the elections, and an attempt to "undermine and weaken" a Palestinian organization such as Hamas.