Israeli troops arrest senior Hamas activist in West Bank crackdown

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- Israeli troops Saturday arrested the founder of the Hamas military wing in the West Bank as part of a widening crackdown on the Islamic militants following Hamas' bloody takeover of Gaza.

The Hamas activist, Saleh Aruri, was taken from his West Bank home before dawn, his wife said. Aruri had served 15 years in an Israeli prison and was released in March.

Hamas alleged in a statement that its political rival, the Fatah movement of moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, is coordinating with Israel in an attempt to crush Hamas in the West Bank.

Israeli military officials said Aruri resumed involvement in violent Hamas activity in recent months.

Palestinian security forces have arrested several dozen Hamas activists since Hamas took control of Gaza in mid-June, in order to prevent a similar takeover in the West Bank. Senior Palestinian officials said they would also try to dry up Hamas' funding, which has been channeled, in part, through Hamas-allied charities and think tanks.

On Friday, Abbas ordered all private associations to apply for new operating permits, allowing him to scrutinize Hamas money transfers.

However, enforcement could prove difficult, since some of the Hamas-allied groups provide badly needed services, such as health and child care, in addition to being used as a conduit for cash.

Nidal Shabana, head of one of the biggest welfare associations in Gaza, al-Mujamma al-Islami, noted his group provides for 5,000 orphans and runs two clinics, 16 kindergartens and two schools. "We are shocked by the decree of the president," he said. "We are associations that provide humanitarian assistance to all people."

Shabana's association had been set up by Hamas' founder, the late Sheik Ahmed Yassin. The militants' network of schools and clinics are one of the pillars of its popularity.

In the West Bank city of Ramallah, a Hamas teachers' association, founded several months ago, as a counterweight to the Fatah-controlled union, faced an uncertain future. One of the leaders of the group, Adnan Diab, said he and his colleagues would try to get a permit, but have suspended projects in the meantime, including building subsidized housing for members.

Also Saturday, Abbas appointed a committee of inquiry into the failure of his security forces in Gaza to stop the Hamas takeover. The panel will coordinate with a similar committee set up in the West Bank last week. In the investigation, senior Fatah leaders and security commanders from Gaza are to be questioned.

In a statement, Abbas also dismissed the former commander of the central Gaza Strip, Col. Suleiman Khader, who had handed control of his security compound to Hamas without a fight. On Friday, Abbas' top security commander, Rashid Abu Shbak, resigned from his post.

Abbas was leaving later Saturday for Jordan, for talks with King Abdullah, ahead of Monday's Mideast peace summit in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik. The summit will be attended by Abbas, Abdullah, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the meeting must not end in disappointment. As a minimum, the Palestinians expect an Israeli promise to meet U.S.-set benchmarks for lifting travel and trade restrictions in the West Bank, he said.

"We hope that in Sharm el-Sheik, we will turn a new page," he said. "Now we should restore credibility to the peace process and restore hope that a peace agreement is doable."

Olmert was to seek the approval of his Cabinet on Sunday for some of these steps, including payment of hundreds of millions of dollars in Palestinian tax funds Israel had frozen when Hamas came to power in March 2006.

In Gaza City on Friday, deposed Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas said Fatah would not be able to exclude Hamas when determining the future of the Palestinian people and he derided international attempts to sideline the Islamic group.

"There is a big force that nobody can wipe out," Haniyeh said in his weekly Friday sermon, referring to Hamas.

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Associated Press writer Dalia Nammari contributed to this report.