ABDUCTION CLAIM EXCUSE FOR ISRAELI TERROR: ANALYST

Hebron, Occupied West Bank, 21 Sya’ban 1435/19 June 2014 (MINA) –A political analyst says Israel is capitalizing on what it alleges to be the abduction of three settlers to advance its acts of terror against Palestinians, according to Press TV reports monitored by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA).

“Israel is using this disappearance as an excuse for a new wave of terror across the West Bank,” Joe Catron, with the International Solidarity Movement, told Press TV in a Wednesday interview.

Israeli authorities said on Wednesday that they have arrested 65 more Palestinians in the occupied West Bank following a crackdown operation to locate the three settlers whom Israel says were kidnapped in al-Khalil (Hebron) last Thursday.

The latest arrests bring to around 240 the number of Palestinians in custody since the alleged abductions.

“Many of the actions they have taken, the mass arrests, the attacks on institutions, the imposition of sieges on civilian population centers, these are some things that have nothing to do with the whereabouts of three teenagers,” he added.

“They are simply designed as an attack on the Hamas movement in the West Bank as well as an attempt to further cement the division between the West Bank and Palestinians elsewhere, primarily the Gaza Strip,” he stressed.

Tel Aviv has accused Hamas of kidnapping the three Israelis. The Palestinian resistance movement, however, rejects the claim, saying Tel Aviv seeks to sabotage the recent reconciliation accord reached between the movement and Fatah, which led to the formation of the Palestinian national unity government earlier this month.

“I think it is clear that the current Israeli actions are at least in part a reaction of the formation of the unity government,” the analyst confirmed.

In a statement issued on Monday, Hamas strongly condemned Israel’s recent arrests in the occupied Palestinian territories, saying the “cowardly” move is a “flagrant violation of all international conventions.” (T/P012/E01)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)