CORRECTED: Israel seizes top Hamas official

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Israel seized Palestinian
Deputy Prime Minister Naser al-Shaer, a top official of the
Hamas militant group, at his home in the occupied West Bank on
Saturday, his wife and two lawmakers said.

Israel has more than two dozen Hamas lawmakers and several
other cabinet ministers in custody since late June, after it
launched an offensive in response to the kidnapping of a
soldier in a cross-border raid from the Gaza Strip.

An Israeli army spokesman confirmed troops had taken
al-Shaer into custody, saying it was “due to his membership in
a terrorist organization.”

Huda al-Shaer, the official’s wife, said he was picked up
at their home in the West Bank town of Ramallah before dawn.

She told Reuters that “several jeeps circled the house
before dawn” then troops came to the door.

An officer told her after checking their identity
documents, “‘sorry Madame, but your husband has to come with
us. He let him first say goodbye to our four children,”
al-Shaer said.

Two lawmakers from Hamas, a militant group that seeks
Israel’s destruction and swept to power in the Palestinian
Authority in March elections, also confirmed al-Shaer had been
seized by Israeli forces.

Saeb Erekat, the top Palestinian negotiator, condemned the
arrest and said “this complicates” a recent bid by Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas to forge a Palestinian unity
government, to ease a Western aid embargo against the Hamas
government.

The boycott is designed to push the militant group to
recognize Israel’s right to exist, renounce violence and accept
past peace accords.

Israel seized dozens of Hamas cabinet ministers and
lawmakers after militants abducted Corporal Gilad Shalit on
June 25. Many were later freed. Al-Shaer had been on the wanted
list but had not been found, Palestinian sources said.

Violence has continued in the West Bank and Gaza during
Israel’s month-long war with Hizbollah guerillas in Lebanon. A
six-day-old ceasefire in the war in Lebanon has largely held.

Israeli troops killed three Palestinian militants on
Friday, while three Palestinians from Hamas’s armed wing died
as they prepared a bomb in the town of Jenin, local security
officials said.