Israel arrests 2 activists of outlawed movement

Israel on Tuesday arrested two alleged activists of the Islamic Movement and raided a pirate radio station in the southern town of Rahat, the Israeli police said.

The two activists are alleged members of the Islamic Movement's northern branch in Israel, which the Israeli government outlawed last November.

They were arrested "on suspicion that they had broadcast in a pirate radio the contents bolstering the outlawed movement," police spokeswoman Luba Samri said in a statement.

Police forces also raided the pirate radio station located in Rahat, a town in Israel's southern Negev Desert, and confiscated a transmitter and other supplies.

The arrestees were transferred for further investigation at the Israeli police's central unit in the southern city of Be'er Sheva. A remand hearing will take place on Wednesday, Samri said.

Israel banned the Islamic Movement's northern branch in last November, after claiming it had incited violence at east Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque compound in October.

The strife soon spread to a wave of violence, including Palestinian attacks against Israelis and clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces, which has claimed the lives of 28 Israelis and nearly 200 Palestinians since October.

Amid the wave of violence in the past several months, Israeli security forces have operated against Palestinian activists and radio stations in the West Bank, under the suspicion of incitement to violence.

The Islamic Movement in Israel was originally founded in 1971 and has been involved in Islamic education and operates charities among Arab Israelis and the Palestinians who remained citizens of Israel after the 1948 war and constitute 20 percent of the country's total population.

Its northern branch had been considered a radical wing with its leader Raed Salah imprisoned several times, involving incitement to violence in his sermons. Endit