Hamas warns West Bank arrests could derail reconciliation

As Azzam al-Ahmad, the Fatah official responsible for the reconciliation file, arrived to Gaza on the evening of May 26, two young men from Hamas in the West Bank, Thaer Shalalada from Halhul and Nour Ahmad from Qalqilya, were summoned by the Preventive Security Forces for questioning on security cases. Hamas members in the West Bank are disappointed because the reconciliation agreement did not stop the arrests of their members. Instead, the arrests increased, according to the Arab Organization for Human Rights.

Statistics that Al-Monitor received from the Hamas committee charged with following up on arrests in the West Bank indicate that the arrests have increased and, since the beginning of 2014, there have been more than 200 arrests and over 500 summons issued. Meanwhile, since the April 23 reconciliation agreement, more than 20 Hamas members have been arrested, with others being summoned, according to the Hamas committee.

On the eve of the reconciliation, arrests reached their peak with the General Intelligence's raid on the houses of members of the legislative council, Ibrahim Abu Salem from Jerusalem and Riyadh Daoud from Tulkarm, who are among Hamas’ main leaders in the West Bank.

Al-Monitor spoke by phone with a Hamas member who was arrested recently and is a student at Birzeit University. Speaking on condition of anonymity after his release from Juneid prison, he said, “The members of the Preventive Security [Forces] led me to their cars and hit me with the butts of their rifles. They accused me of spying on security members. I stayed in jail for a week, during which I was treated inhumanely. I was forbidden from going to the bathroom, deprived of sleep and malnourished.”