117 members of Hamas were arrested by Israeli security forces in the latest detention operation in the West Bank, according to a statement released on Monday by Israel's internal secret service, the Shin Bet. The men reportedly belonged to three separate divisions of Hamas in the West Bank in and around the towns of Hebron and Ramallah.
According to Israeli sources, the men were responsible for a series of attacks against Israelis, including the kidnap and killing of Nuriel Sasson outside of Jerusalem in September, and the bombing of a bus station in southern Israel in August which killed six Israelis.
The incidents, according to the statement, occurred despite the group's call for calm as agreed upon by Palestinian factions presently.
Israel in recent weeks had avoided the arrest of Hamas members and focused instead on the pursuit and detention of member of the Islamic Jihad faction, which had refrained from joining Hamas in the public call for calm, according to Haaretz.
Israel claimed that the three groups were planning similar acts in the future, including suicide bombings and the abduction of Israeli soldiers.
Thirty-five members of were arrested from a network in Dahariya, south of Hebron, while fifty-nine were arrested from Shuyukh, north of Hebron. 23 others were arrested at an undisclosed location.
