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Israeli soldiers rounded up at least seven of the Islamic group's political leaders in the West Bank in a pre-dawn arrest sweep Thursday, Hamas officials and relatives said.
The detentions come after the failure of recent efforts to win the release of an Israeli soldier Hamas is holding in Gaza.
The Israeli military, which routinely detains Palestinians in the West Bank, said 20 Palestinians had been detained overnight. But it said it had no information on the arrests of the Hamas politicians.
Israel has detained dozens of Hamas politicians in the West Bank on various occasions since the capture of Gilad Schalit, 22, in a cross-border raid in June 2006.
The detainees in this latest raid include Nasser Shaer, a former Palestinian deputy prime minister, and several Hamas lawmakers, Hamas officials and relatives said. Some of them were detained and released in past raids.
The failure of the prisoner swap talks threatens to set off a long chain reaction of negative developments. Israel has vowed not to lift its crushing blockade of impoverished Gaza until Schalit is returned home. That could seriously impede reconstruction there after Israel's recent military offensive because building materials and equipment won't be able to enter the territory, home to 1.4 million Palestinians.
The continued blockade could also hamper efforts to cement a long-term truce between Israel and Hamas.
PHOTO CAPTION
A Palestinian girl from al-Samuni family plays on the rubble of her family house in the Zeitun neighbourhood of Gaza City as the sun sets.
Agencies
