Israel says will arrest Hamas poll candidates at roadblocks
Agencies

The Islamist movement Hamas announced Thursday that it had finished compiling its list of candidates for its first ever parliamentary elections campaign in January.

Among those who are to contest the January 25 elections, when Hamas will hope to overturn the ruling Fateh movement's dominance, are its top leaders in its Gaza Strip stronghold, Mahmud Zahar, Ismail Haniya and Said Siam, Hamas sources said.

The Islamist movement's main spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, confirmed that the list had been finalised but held back from naming names.

"The Hamas list for the legislative elections is ready but it is still too soon to announce the names," Abu Zuhri told AFP. "Some members of the political leadership as well as a certain number of women figure on the list," he added.

The Hamas sources said that among the women who would challenge for a seat in the parliament was Rasha Rantissi, the widow of Hamas leader Abdelaziz Rantissi who was assassinated in an Israeli air strike last year.

Hamas boycotted the last parliamentary elections a decade ago, but buoyed by its strong showing in recent municipal polls, has decided to field candidates this time around.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said yesterday that Israel would immediately arrest Hamas candidates if they tried to go through Israeli military roadblocks. "f a Hamas member wants to move from place to place, from one checkpoint to another, he will be immediately arrested," Sharon told a meeting of news editors.

Israel objects to Hamas' participation in the elections so long as the Islamic group remains armed and committed to Israel's destruction. Sharon said that Israel would not talk with Hamas if the group were to emerge victorious in the elections. "We do not see them as any type of partner in contacts with Israel," he said.

But he said that Hamas' participation in the election would not sour Israel's relations with the Palestinian Authority. "I don't see that this can influence in a negative way on their way of dealing with negotiations," he said.

Meanwhile, a Palestinian activists was wounded during clashes with Israeli troops and eight others arrested overnight in the West Bank, Palestinian security and Israeli military sources said Thursday. A member of Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, an armed group loosely linked to Fateh, was injured during the exchanges of fire with Israeli soldiers in the northern city of Nablus, the Palestinian sources said.

A spokeswoman for the Israeli army said that a unit taking part in an arrest operation in Nablus had opened fire towards a group of armed Palestinians. In addition, the spokeswoman said that eight suspected fighters, including five members of Islamic Jihad, had been arrested in the Nablus and Ramallah regions.

Also on Thursday, the Israeli army it had arrested in the West Bank a Palestinian journalist working for the Internet site of Al Jazeera television. Awad Rajub, 29, was arrested for "security reasons" at his home in Dura, near the West Bank city of Hebron on Tuesday and was still in detention, a spokesman said.

Walid Amari, the Qatar-based satellite channel's bureau chief for Jerusalem and the Palestinian territories, said: "The army simply said that he had been arrested for security reasons, and we do not know any more than that.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas left the West Bank town of Ramallah for the Vatican on Thursday where he was expected to hold his first talks with Pope Benedict XVI, his office said.

At the talks, on Friday, Abbas is expected to discuss the issue of the Christian holy sites in Jerusalem and in Bethlehem, the town where the Bible says Jesus was born. His visit comes two weeks after Israeli President Moshe Katsav held a private audience with the pontiff and invited him to visit Israel.