Israel seizes Hamas political leaders

Israeli security forces seized 12 senior Hamas leaders before dawn on Thursday, after the failure to secure the release of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit during this week's negotiations in Cairo.Israel launched a new crackdown on Hamas on Thursday, rounding up top leaders in the West Bank after the failure of efforts to secure the release of a soldier held by the Islamist rulers of the Gaza Strip. Security forces seized 12 senior Hamas leaders in pre-dawn raids in the occupied West Bank, including four members of the Palestinian legislative council, Hamas and the army said. The Islamists denounced the action as "blackmail" following the collapse of Egyptian-brokered efforts to reach an agreement on an Israel-Hamas prisoner swap. The Palestinian Authority, headed by Hamas's political foes Fatah, also slammed the arrests and called on the international community to intervene. "These men have been the leaders of the ongoing effort to restore the administrative branch of the Hamas terror organisation in the region, while attempting to strengthen the power and influence of Hamas," an Israeli military spokeswoman said. Thirty-six Hamas MPs have been in jail since a major crackdown in the West Bank that followed the capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit by Gaza militants including Hamas fighters in a deadly cross-border raid in June 2006. On Saturday, Shalit will have been held captive for 1,000 days.