Palestinian security forces arrested 15 Hamas activists, including four university lecturers, in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, witnesses said.
The arrests took place in the city of Nablus. Relatives of those detained confirmed the arrests, which were also reported online by a number of pro-Hamas Web sites. According to Reuters, witnesses said four lecturers at Al-Najah University in the city were among those detained by forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah faction.
Meanwhile, Hamas freed on Thursday a cameraman working with Germany's ARD news network in the Gaza Strip after a nearly weeklong detention, security sources said. Hamas detained cameraman Sawah Abu Seif last week during a crackdown on their Fatah rivals in the coastal territory after a bomb attack killed five Hamas militants and a girl.
ARD's regional bureau chief, Richard C. Schneider, said Abu Seif had no party affiliation.
