Special report: New violence between Israel, Palestine

Hamas-led cabinet takes office

    RAMALLAH, June 28 (Xinhua) -- A minister of the Hamas-led Palestinian government was arrested by Israeli troops in the West Bank on late Wednesday, Palestinian security sources said.

    Palestinian Labor Minister Mohammed al-Barghuti who is also a Hamas member was arrested by Israeli soldiers at an Israeli army checkpoint near the West Bank city of Ramallah, the sources said.

    Witnesses said that Israeli soldiers stopped Barghuti's car and then detained him.

    Meanwhile, the pan-Arab al-Jazeera satellite TV reported that the Israeli army was carrying out a large-scale arrest campaign targeting Hamas officials in the West Bank.

    The arrest came as Israeli troops were waging a massive ground operation in the Gaza Strip in order to free an Israeli soldier kidnapped by Palestinian militants.

    An armed wing of Hamas, along with two other Palestinian militant groups, carried out the deadly cross-border attack on an Israeli army post on Sunday.

    A 19-year-old Israeli soldier was snatched by the militants and two other Israeli soldiers were killed in the attack.Israel has accused Damascus-based Hamas leaders of ordering the abduction.

    Hamas, or the Islamic Resistance Movement, is sworn to Israel's destruct.

    The group took the reins of the Palestinian government in late March after a sweeping election in January. Enditem