The Ramattan news Agency reported that Israeli soldiers detained on
Tuesday afternoon the Palestinian Minister of Detainees, Wasfi Qabha,
and two of his aides at the Betunia checkpoint, west of Ramallah in the
northern part of the West Bank.
Qabha was detained as he joined several residents who gathered peacefully awaiting the release of a two-year old child, named Aisha Al Holadly, held with her mother at the Ofer Israeli detention facility.
Etaf Oleyyan, the mother of Aisha is under administrative detention orders, her husband Waleed Al Hodaly is a freed detainees.
Waleed, the minister and several other residents were also gathering near Ofer awaiting an the Israeli response to an appeal filed the Etaf against renewing her administrative detention order for the third time, and demanding to be freed with her infant.
Israeli troops approached the gathering, asked people for the Palestinian minister and then detained him and two of his aides, eyewitnesses told Ramattan correspondent.
The Israeli troops took the Qabha and his aides aside, pulled their ID cards and started to investigate them, the correspondent added.
The Palestinian Minister was released a couple of months ago after being held in Israeli prisons along with a dozens of Hamas-affiliated Ministers and lawmakers who were taken prisoner during an Israeli campaign of arrests against Hamas officials.
