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Israel arrests senior Palestinian leader
A senior Palestinian politician and member of Hamas is arrested by the Israeli army in the West Bank. Fatah appears ill-prepared for a promised electoral showdown with Hamas.
Fatah and Hamas leaders agreed to hold presidential and parliamentary elections by May 2012
Aziz Dweik, speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), was arrested at an army checkpoint. The arrest happened in Jaba, between Ramallah and Jerusalem, as Dweik was travelling by car to Hebron.
Israel authorities confirmed the arrest. Israeli border troops said he was detained for "involvement in terrorist activities".
Witnesses told the Palestinian Maan news agency that Israeli soldiers handcuffed and blindfolded Dweik before taking him to an unknown destination.
Dweik is a member of the Hamas movement, which governs the Palestinian territory of Gaza. However, he is based in the West Bank.
The Palestinian parliament has not met since Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007 from the rival Palestinian Fatah Party. Since then Fatah,backed by the West governs the West Bank.
Fatah and Hamas, after several years of running rival governments in the West Bank and Gaza agreed in principle to "reconcile" and hold presidential and parliamentary elections by May 2012.
Fatah, the mainstream Palestinian national movement whose survival is key to hopes for a peace deal with Israel, appears ill-prepared for a promised electoral showdown with the Islamic militant Hamas.
The movement's leaders, blamed Fatah's loss to Hamas in 2006 parliament elections on lack of organization. They now claim that they've come up with a detailed plan to mobilize supporters and field attractive candidates. But skeptics note the party, known for infighting, hasn't even begun looking for a presidential candidate to replace leader Mahmoud Abbas, 76, who says he is retiring.
The election date is linked to progress in slow-moving reconciliation talks, and Abbas' initial election date of 4 May already seems out of reach. The delay has raised questions about whether Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal are genuinely committed to elections.
In December they announced that they are ready to end the split, but the goodwill gestures promised at the time, such as releasing political detainees and lifting travel bans, have not been carried out. They plan to meet again in Cairo in early February.
