Kidnapping Hamas Parliamentarians Planned Weeks Ago
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Courtesy Of: Haaretz.com
By Avi Issacharoff and Amos Harel,
Haaretz Coorespondents
Last Updated: 29/06/2006

...The detention of Hamas Parliamentarians in the early hours of Thursday Morning had been planned several weeks ago and received approval from Attorney General Menachem Mazuz on Wednesday.

The same day, Shin Bet Director Yuval Diskin presented Prime Minister Ehud Olmert with the lists of Hamas officials slated for detention.

..."The detention of elected members of the Palestinian government and legislature raises particular concerns," said a Joint statement by the G8, which also called on Israel to exercise "umost restraint."

"[This]...is a pre-planned plot to destroy the [Palestinian] Authority, the government and the Parliament and to bring the Palestinian people to their knees," Hamas lawmaker Mushir al-Masri said Thursday.

...A Hamas official called the arrests an "Open war against the Palestinian government and people," and said that "Israel must be prepared to pay their consequences."

"We have no government, we have nothing. They have all been taken," Saeb Erekat, an ally of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, said of the arrests.

"This is absolutely unacceptable and we demand their release immediately."

Source:
http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/732528.html