Israeli troops detained 10 Hamas politicians from the occupied West Bank today in what Palestinians called a punitive round-up following Israel's failure to retrieve a captive soldier.
Egyptian efforts to mediate the release of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli conscript held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip since June 2006, in return for Israel freeing hundreds of jailed Palestinians, collapsed this week.
The West Bank detainees included four Hamas lawmakers, three of whom already served time in Israeli custody after Shalit's capture, the Islamist faction said.
"These arrests are an angry reaction by Israel because of the failure of the Shalit deal," Mahmoud Musleh, another Hamas lawmaker, told Reuters. "This won't do Israel any good."
The Israeli military said the 10 politicians "were taken in for questioning".
"These men have been the leaders of the ongoing effort to restore the administrative branch of the Hamas terror organisation in the region, while attempting to strengthen the power and influence of Hamas," it said in a statement. Asked if the detentions could be connected to Shalit, a military spokesman said: "I have no indication of that."
Reuters