Israeli army arrests senior Hamas leader in West Bank raid
Hamas partially re-opens Erez border crossing after shuttering it over assassination blamed on Israel
Israeli security forces arrested a senior Hamas official in the West Bank during an overnight operation, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced Monday.
Also on Monday, a Palestinian man attempted to stab Israeli soldiers at the Hawwara junction, south of Nablus in the West Bank. There were no casualties, and the assailant was subdued by IDF soldiers without gunfire, the army said.
Rafat Nassif, a senior Hamas political figure was recently released from prison, was one of 14 wanted suspects arrested in the overnight raids. Nine of those detained are suspected of involvement in terror activity and rioting, the army said.
According to the Palestine Information Center, Nassif was a "prominent political activist" during the second intifada. He had spent over a dozen years in Israeli prisons.
Nassif's arrest came following intelligence of increased Hamas-related activities around his home, Israel's Shin Bet intelligence agency said, apparently in connection to the organization's elections for the group's West Bank leadership.
Hamas has been holding the elections in secret out of fears that Israel and the Palestinian Authority would arrest its top candidates.
Hamas and the West Bank based Fatah party, led by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, have been at loggerheads since 2007 when Hamas brutally ousted Fatah from the Gaza Strip after losing the National Palestinian elections.
Hamas partially reopens Erez border crossing
Nassif's arrest comes days after the assassination of a top Hamas military figure in the Gaza Strip, which the group has accused Israel of orchestrating.
Mazen Fuqaha, a senior member of Hamas' Al-Qassam brigades, was reportedly shot four times in the head by unknown assassins in the Tel el-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City on Friday.
Hamas on Monday partially re-opened the Erez border crossing for limited movement of people in and out of the enclave after shuttering it on Sunday as the group investigates Fuqaha's death.
"From Monday morning, travel through the Beit Hanoun (Erez) crossing will be permitted temporarily for some categories," a statement from Iyad al-Bozum, a spokesman for the interior ministry in Gaza said.
Anyone would be allowed to enter Gaza, the statement said, but those leaving would remain restricted to senior politicians, the sick and families of prisoners. The latter two groups would be age-limited -- only those under 15 and over 45.
Thousands attended Fuqaha's funeral in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, including Hamas' Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar and his predecessor, Ismail Haniyeh, with participants calling for "revenge" against Israel.
While Hamas was quick to blame Israel for Fuqaha's death, but others suggested that the killing may have been a consequence of an internal dispute among Hamas and rogue Salafist groups.
Unconfirmed media reports from Gaza on Sunday said that the assassins arrived by sea and meticulously collected evidence after the killing, including removing bullet cartridges that could indicate their identity, before immediately fleeing the scene.
Reports by media outlets affiliated with Hamas pointed to heavy press coverage of the killing by Israeli media as evidence of the country's involvement.
Israel has not commented on the shooting.
Fuqaha, 38, was from the West Bank village of Toubas, and been serving nine life sentences for planning a deadly 2002 suicide bombing in northern Israel, in which nine people were killed and 52 injured.
He was released by Israel as part of a prisoner exchange deal for kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit in 2011 and was deported from Gaza.