RAMALLAH, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Israeli army arrested on Friday a senior Hamas leader in the West Bank, Palestinian security sources said.
Sheikh Hassan Yousef, co-founder of Hamas, ruler of the Gaza Strip, was arrested from his home in the town of Beitunia near the West Bank city of Ramallah, the sources told Xinhua, all on condition of anonymity.
Yousef was taken to the Israeli detention camp of Ofar, they added.
The family of Yousef said the 64-year-old senior Hamas leader suffers from serious health conditions as he had spent 21 years in Israeli prisons.
It is worth noting that Yousef was released by the Israeli army in July after a 15-month administrative detention.
In a press statement sent to Xinhua, Hamas said Yousef's arrest "is part of the Israeli threats and arbitrary arrests against the movement and its leaders in the West Bank."
"Kidnapping Yousef would never obstruct the track of unity that he worked on over the past two months," said the statement.
Jibril Rajoub, a member of the central committee of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement, condemned in a press statement Yousef's arrest as Israel's attempts "to obstruct the Palestinian unity and its efforts to end the internal division." Enditem
