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Israel detains prominent Palestinian lawmaker

Xinhua, January 28, 2016 Adjust font size:

Israel detained Palestinian lawmaker Mouhamad Abu Tir, a senior Hamas official, an army spokeswoman confirmed to Xinhua on Thursday.

Local media reported that Abu Tir, a prominent Palestinian figure and a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, was detained overnight by military forces in his home in the village of Aqab, north of Jerusalem.

The military spokeswoman said that he was arrested in a joint operation by the army and the Shin Bet security service for "suspected continued involvement in terror activity."

Abu Tir has been detained by Israel for several times. He spent a total of at least 13 years in Israeli prisons before Israel revoked his Jerusalem residency, forcing him to leave his home. He was last released in July 2015, after serving two years in jail for failing to leave Jerusalem.

Israeli forces arrested overnight 14 other Palestinian "terror suspects" in the West Bank, most of them members of the Hamas movement.

The arrests came amidst a four-month-long surge of Israeli-Palestinian violence, which has so far claimed the lives of at least 150 Palestinians, 25 Israelis and a U.S. citizen. Endit