The Israeli occupation forces arrested two leaders of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) at dawn today, Tuesday, while an Arab human rights committee reported that Israel is detaining 17 Palestinian journalists and media professionals inside its prisons.
The two leaders, Mustafa Al-Shannar - a lecturer at An-Najah University - and Dr. Omar Al-Hanbali, were arrested after storming their homes in the city of Nablus in the northern West Bank at dawn today, Tuesday.
Informed local sources said that the occupation forces also arrested a young man named Amid Hijazi from the Asira Street area in the city.
Assem, the son of the leader, Mustafa Al-Shannar, told Al-Jazeera Net that the occupation soldiers violently broke the door of their house, without allowing them to open it, and arrested his father after conducting a field investigation with him inside the house.
He added that the soldiers closed his father's eyes with a cloth strap after his arrest, and then took him to an unknown destination.
He stated that this is the tenth detention of his father, as he was subjected to many arrests before that, during which he spent many years in the occupation prisons, most of them in administrative detention, and he suffers from several diseases, some of them chronic.
The Israeli occupation forces also arrested the prisoner, the leader of Hamas, Omar al-Hanbali, after raiding his house in the Al-Maajin neighborhood.
The occupation forces had also arrested the leader of the Islamic Jihad Movement, Sheikh Bassam Al-Saadi, from his home in Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank, after his raid on Monday evening. The young man, Dirar Riyad Al-Kafrini, was martyred during the raid.
On the other hand, the Israeli occupation forces demolished a house in Sebastia village, north of Nablus, after storming it at dawn today, Tuesday.
Meanwhile, an Arab human rights committee said on Monday that Israel is detaining 17 Palestinian journalists and media professionals in its prisons.
The Committee to Support Journalists (based in Beirut), added, in a statement, that "the Israeli occupation arrested, on Monday morning, the former prisoner and journalist Nidal Abu Akar (56 years), after storming his house in the city of Bethlehem."
According to the committee, Israel released Abu Aker last May, after about 23 months in prison, while the years of his detention exceeded 18 years, most of which he spent in administrative detention.
She also made it clear that Israel prevented two journalists from traveling last July, so that they could not expose its crimes abroad.
The committee added that "the travel ban and arrest come within the framework of restricting the transmission of the truth and exposing the crimes of the occupation to the world."