At the same time, the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip has sought to stop
support for the PA campaign. On Sept. 23, two officers of the General
Intelligence Services arrested the owner of a restaurant that sought to play
a video of the address by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to the UN General
Assembly.
"The security forces in the West Bank should instead be protecting the
people from settler attacks and not persecuting them, raiding their homes,
and summoning them for interrogation," a statement by Hamas members of the
Palestinian Legislative Council said.
On Sept. 25, the Hamas deputies said hundreds of Islamic operatives were
arrested or summoned for interrogation over a 48-hour period. They said the
PA campaign was being led by the Preventive Security Apparatus.
The detainees were said to have included the two sons of a Hamas member
of the PLC, Omar Abdul Raziq. Abdul Raziq, a resident of the northern town
of Salfit, has been a prisoner in Israel.
Hamas said many of the detainees were activists at Palestinian
universities, including An Najah in Nablus. Many of those arrested had also
been in Israel prisons.