Local sources reported that Deputy Prime Minister Nasser Al-Sha'er was abducted on Thursday, though Hamas denied these reports.

In a press conference, Deputy chair of the Palestinian Legislative Council Ahmad Bahar called ifor the United Nations Security Council to look into the Israeli offensive against the Palestinian People.
The Palestinian News Agency, WAFA, reported that soldiers arrested the head of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Dr. Aziz Dweik, after surrounding a building in Al Baloa' neighborhood in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Troops in Ramallah also surrounded a residential building and arrested the Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Education, Dr. Nasser Al Deen Al Sha'er, the Minister of Finance Dr. Omar Abdul-Raziq, Minister of Detainees Wasfi Qabha, and Minister of Planning Samir Abu Aisha.

Soldiers also arrested Palestinian Labor Minister Mohammad Al Barghouthi after stopping him at a checkpoint at Bir Zeit University near Ramallah shortly after midnight. He was taken to an unknown location.

Ashraf, the brother of minister Al Barghouthi, said the soldiers blindfolded his brother and took him to an unknown location.

Al Barghouthi was heading back home with his brother to Kober village near Ramallah after conducting a TV interview.

In Jerusalem, Israeli soldiers arrested Legislators Ahmad Atwan, Wa'el Al Hosseiny, and Mohammad Abu Teir after breaking into their homes.

The brother of legislator Wa'el Al Hosseiny told WAFA that Israeli troops detonated an explosive at the door of his brother's house in the Al Dahia area near Jerusalem and violently broke into his house.

Local sources in Jerusalem reported that a huge military force participated in the attack and that the legislators arrested were all taken to unknown locations.

Troops continued their raid into the West Bank by invading the city of Hebron and arresting Minister of Waqf and Islamic Affairs Nayef Al Rajoub and legislators Khleel Rib'ey, from Yatta village, and Basim Al Za'areer, from Al Samoa'.

Senior Palestinian sources reported that Israeli security forces and soldiers, supported by several military vehicles, broke into the house of Khaled Abu Arafa, Minister of Jerusalem Affairs, in Jerusalem and arrested him.

Israeli soldiers also raided Bethlehem, arresting Palestinian Legislative Council member Anwar Zboun. His location is not currently known.

Legislators Khaled Sa'id and Hamas legislative council spokesperson Khaled Suleiman were arrested in the northern West Bank city of Jenin.

Troops invaded the northern West Bank city of Qalqilia, breaking into the homes of Mayor Wajeeh Qawwas and his Deputy, Hashim Al Masry. Both were arrested.

Qawwas was elected mayor of Qalqilia while he was imprisoned in Israel. He was released just last month.

Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers surrounded a hotel in Ramallah where several Hamas legislators and ministers are holed up and called them to surrender.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyya said earlier in the day that Israel should halt its attack against the Gaza Strip, adding that the Israeli military escalation "complicates the situation" instead of properly solving the crisis of the abducted soldier in the Gaza Strip.

Haniyya added that the American position that supports the declared wide-scale military operation "gives Israel a green light to resume its assault on the Gaza Strip and ignores the suffering of the Palestinian people."

Several Hamas supporters and leaders were also arrested in the raid.

The arrests are part of the ongoing Israeli attack against the Hamas-led Palestinian government while Israeli troops continue their shelling of the Gaza Strip as part of the "Summer Rain" military offensive ordered by the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert.

Israel Defense Forces troops launched the major arrest operation overnight, detaining 64 of the ruling party's cabinet ministers and parliamentarians in the West Bank, as well as another 23 military activists.

The move is part of Israel's expanded military operation against the Hamas-led government in the Palestinian Authority.

The arrests took place in Ramallah, Qalqilyah, Hebron, Jenin and East Jerusalem, according to Palestinian reports. Soldiers carried arrest warrants signed by judges that were issued following cooperative preparatory work by the state prosecution and police.

"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 "utmost 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.

There appeared to be some confusion Thursday as to whether Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister Nasser a-Shaer, had been one of those detainees or whether he had evaded capture and gone into hiding in the West Bank.

The Hamas ministers had apparently expected the arrests. A-Shaer's wife said Thursday that he had avoided the military arrest operation as he had not been sleeping at home when the sweep took place.

He reportedly had disconnected all his cellular telephones for fear Israeli security services would again attempt to track him down and arrest him.

A-Shaer's wife said she had been in contact with him, and that he was not arrested. Employees at the Ministry of Education offices in Ramallah reported seeing him in the building in the late morning.

But GOC Southern Command Major General Yair Navbeh confirmed at a news conference Thursday that a-Shaer was among those who had been detained.

Warning to Haniyeh

On Thursday morning, National Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer hinted that Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh is not exempt from arrest or harm.

"No one is immune... This is not a government. It is a murderous organization," Ben-Eliezer said.

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."

Israel Radio quoted Shin Bet security chief Yuval Diskin as having told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on the day of the kidnapping: "If the soldier is not returned in 24 hours, Israel will not allow the Palestinian government to survive."

The Foreign Ministry released a statement Thursday saying the recent security-related events, particularly the Qassam rocket fire and the kidnapping of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, were realizations of the Palestinian government's policies of terror.

The acceptance of responsibility for the kidnapping and the Hamas-led government's demand to exchange prisoners prove that Hamas' primary objective is not concern for the Palestinian people but determination to implement its policies of terror, the statement said.

"As a result of this, and out of a basic obligation to its citizens, Israel decided to implement orders to prevent terrorism," it went on.

Included among the detainees were Finance Minister Omar Abdel Razek; Minister Samir Abu Aysha; Khaled Abu Arfeh; and Jerusalem Affairs Ministers Naef Rajoub, the brother of senior Fatah official Jibril Rajoub.

Five of the cabinet ministers were arrested at the same Ramallah hotel.

Ahmed al-Najjar, a receptionist at the hotel, said he was asleep when troops arrived after midnight, demanded a list of guests, and took the men from their rooms at gunpoint.

Palestinian attorneys representing security detainees at the IDF military court in Salem said Thursday morning they refuse to represent the Hamas members arrested overnight because they maintain the arrests themselves are illegitimate.

In Ramallah, troops arrested at least two cabinet ministers and four lawmakers, all from Hamas, in a raid on a complex of buildings, Palestinian security officials said.

Labor Minister Mohammed Barghouti was stopped on his way to his village, Kabur, just north of Ramallah. Military jeeps stopped his car, ordered him out of the vehicle and took him away, the officials said.

In East Jerusalem, lawmakers Mohammed Abu Tir, Wael al-Husseini and Ahmed a-Tun were arrested.

Also, the Hamas mayor of the West Bank town of Qalqilyah and his deputy were detained, security officials said.

An IDF spokeswoman said the arrests were part of an operation against suspected terrorists, and were not "bargaining chips" for the release of abducted IDF soldier Corporal Gilad Shalit.

"They are not bargaining chips for the return of the soldier. It was simply an operation against a terrorist organization," she said. "They will be investigated, brought before a judge to extend their detention and charge sheets will be prepared."

The arrests are part of several moves designed to increase pressure on the militant group to free a captive soldier. Israel blames Hamas for the abduction of Shalit, kidnapped Sunday by militants who attacked an IDF post near the border with Gaza.

Army Radio speculated that the lawmakers might be used to trade for the captured soldier, but the IDF refused to comment on the matter.

The operation Thursday night came amidst IDF operations in the southern Gaza Strip aimed at securing Shalit's release.

The IDF troops were poised to pour into the northern Gaza Strip early Thursday after the second stage of Operation Summer Rains was authorized by Defense Minister Amir Peretz.

Peretz said every operation of IDF should be thoroughly examined "in this most critical moment", and the possibility of a breakthrough in compelling Palestinian militants to release Cpl.

Gilad Shalit still exists, Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz reported. The IDF confirmed that at least 60 Hamas government ministers,parliament members and activists were arrested during a swift operation carried out overnight in Ramallah, Nablus, Qalqilya,Jenin and Jerusalem.

The IDF launched Operation Summer Rains in the Gaza Strip early Wednesday after an Israeli soldier was kidnapped by Palestinian militants during a predawn attack on a military post near Gaza border on Sunday.

Two Israeli soldiers and two Palestinian militants were killed in the battle.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has vowed to take "extreme actions" to bring the kidnapped soldier home.

Hezbollah, also backed by Syria's main regional ally Iran, has carried out several deadly attacks along the Israeli-Lebanese border since Israel withdrew its troops from southern Lebanon in 2000.

Tensions are running high in the Middle East after launched a military offensive in the Gaza Strip Wednesday to hunt down a teenage soldier captured by Palestinian militants.

Israel has warned that Hamas militants exiled in Damascus, including political supreme leader Khaled Meshaal, are clearly in their sights over the kidnapping of 19-year-old Gilad Shalit in an attack on the Gaza border on Sunday that also killed two Israeli soldiers.

Israeli warplanes overflew Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's palace in northern Syria Wednesday while the leader was inside, an operation Syrian state television called an "aggressive act and an unacceptable provocation."

"This operation was launched due to the support and protection Syria gives Hamas, which is responsible for the kidnapping of our soldier," the Israeli spokeswoman added.

The action provided "a way for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to prove the long arm of the Israeli army," said a report by Channel 10 television.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan voiced his concern about the escalating Middle East violence, and urged all sides to avoid spreading the conflict.

"We need to be very careful, not only not to escalate but not to expand the area of the conflict," Annan said of the Israeli sortie over Assad's palace.

"So it's very important that we all take very careful steps to deescalate and not take any action or initiative that would expand or escalate the situation," he said.

Public Security Minister Avi Dichter issued a direct threat against the Hamas militants on Wednesday, saying Israel had issued warnings to Syria about the presence of Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders but they had been disregarded.

"This therefore gives Israel full permission to attack these assassins," said Dichter, a former chief of Israel's domestic security agency Shin Beth.

"For years, Israel has held Syria responsible for some of the terrorist actions perpetrated on Israeli territory."

In particular, Israeli leaders have pointed the finger Meshaal, with one minister comparing him to Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Meshaal, 50, is one of Israel's most wanted men and famously survived a bungled attempt by Mossad agents, who tried to poison him in 1997 in Jordan.

"He is definitely in our sights... He is a target. As someone who is overseeing, actually commanding the terror acts, (he) is definitely a target," said Justice Minister Haim Ramon.

A close aide told AFP in Amman that Meshaal was unafraid of Israeli threats.

"Abu al-Walid (Meshaal) believes in God and in fate. The Israeli threats do not scare him," the aide said in a phone interview from Damascus. "He is used to living dangerously."

Hamas's spiritual leader and co-founder Ahmed Yassin and his successor Abdel Aziz Rantissi were killed in Israeli air strikes within a month of each other in 2004.

Sunday's capture of the Israeli soldier, Cpl. Gilad Shalit by Hamas' military wing and two affiliated groups, and Israel's subsequent military incursion into Gaza threatened to bring the two sides to the brink of all-out war. Hamas, which took over the Palestinian Authority after winning parliamentary elections in January, has resisted international pressure to renounce violence and recognize Israel.

An Israeli military official said a total of 64 Hamas officials were arrested in the early morning roundup. Of those, Palestinian officials said seven are ministers in Hamas' 23-member Cabinet and 20 others are lawmakers in the 72-seat parliament.

Palestinian parliament speaker Abdel Aziz Duaik and Religious Affairs Minister Nayef Rajoub, brother of former West Bank strongman Jibril Rajoub of the rival Fatah party, were among those rounded up. There were conflicting reports about whether Deputy Prime Minister Nasser Shaer, who has called for Shalit's release, was arrested.

Officials will be questioned and eventually indicted, the Israeli army and government officials said.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said the ministers and lawmakers were not taken as bargaining chips for Shalit's release, but because Israel holds Hamas responsible for attacks against it.

"The arrests of these Hamas officials ... is part of a campaign against a terrorist organization that has escalated its war of terror against Israeli civilians," Regev said.

Israel has said it would not negotiate Shalit's release with the militants and has rejected demands to free Palestinian prisoners in exchange for information about the captured soldier.

Palestinians were outraged by the arrests.

"We have no government, we have nothing. They have all been taken," said Saeb Erekat, an ally of the moderate Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas. "This is absolutely unacceptable and we demand their release immediately."

Although the Israeli action was touched off by the soldier's capture, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government has also been alarmed by a surge in the firing of homemade rockets on Israeli communities bordering Gaza.

A militant offshoot of Abbas' Fatah party said it had fired a homemade rocket with a chemical warhead at the southern Israeli town of Sderot late Wednesday, the first such claim. The Israeli military said it did not detect a rocket fired then, and there was no way to verify the claim.

Israeli warplanes, tanks and thousands of troops began moving into Gaza overnight Tuesday. They knocked out Gaza's only power station, made main roads impassable and took over Gaza's long-closed airport. Aircraft bombed empty Hamas training camps, witnesses said, and flew low over the coastal strip in an apparent attempt to intimidate.

Airstrikes against the training camps continued Thursday, with two coming against camps in southern Gaza used by Hamas and the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a Fatah offshoot. No deaths or injuries have been reported in any of the attacks.

But the disabling of Gaza's electric power plant raised the specter of a humanitarian crisis. The Hamas-led government warned of "epidemics and health disasters" because of damaged water pipes to central Gaza and the lack of power to pump water.

The incursion has focused so far on southern Gaza, where the military thinks Shalit is being held. But the military signaled the prospect of a new front being opened in the northern part of the strip when it dropped leaflets late Wednesday into the area, urging residents to avoid moving in the area because of impending military activity. Security officials said it could take days before a second front was opened.

Israeli army bulldozers moved in Thursday to clear agricultural lands in northern Gaza, witnesses said, apparently so Palestinians couldn't hide there. A small number of tanks entered a buffer zone between southern Israel and Gaza, as they have done in recent weeks.

Olmert has threatened harsher action to free the soldier, though he said there was no plan to reoccupy Gaza. Abbas deplored the incursion as a "crime against humanity."

Abbas and Egyptian dignitaries tried to persuade Syria's Assad to use his influence with Hamas' Damascus-based political chief, Khaled Mashaal, to free the soldier. Assad agreed, but without results, said a senior Abbas aide.

In a clear warning to the Syrian president, Israeli airplanes flew over his seaside home near the Mediterranean port city of Latakia in northwestern Syria, military officials confirmed, citing the "direct link" between his government and Hamas. Israeli television reports said four planes were involved in the low-altitude flight, and that Assad was there at the time.

Syria confirmed Israeli warplanes entered its airspace, but said its air defenses forced the Israeli aircraft to flee.

Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon said Wednesday that the hard-line Mashaal, who appears to be increasingly at odds with more moderate Hamas politicians in Gaza, is an Israeli assassination target. Israel tried to kill Mashaal in a botched assassination attempt in Jordan in 1997.



The Popular Resistance Committees in Gaza, which has strong links to Hamas, said it executed Asheri, kidnapped in the West Bank. An Israeli military official said he was shot in the head shortly after he was abducted Sunday. The PRC had said it would execute the hostage if Israel did not halt its invasion of Gaza.

Government spokesman Asaf Shariv said Asheri's killers would be arrested, and Israel would try to bring them to trial.

"Their days as free people are numbered," Shariv said.

Militants also say they kidnapped another Israeli, a 62-year-old man from the central Israeli city of Rishon Lezion. But police said Thursday they found the man's body in his hometown in Israel, and that he apparently died of medical problems.