GAZA CITY, July 2: Israeli forces pressed on with their policy of seizing Palestinian fighters on Tuesday, nabbing 100 people, including six border policemen in the southern Gaza Strip, and a leader of the Islamic Jihad.

They also briefly detained two Palestinian security chiefs in Al Khalil, where troops likewise rounded up polytechnic students heading into an exam and arrested several of them, officials said.

The army captured one of the leaders of the hardline Islamic Jihad movement in the northern West Bank town of Jenin, a stronghold of the group which is one of seven main towns in the region re-occupied by Israeli forces last month.

“The Israelis on Monday night arrested Nizam Sawafta, 30, in his home in Tubas, 20 kilometres south of Jenin,” the group’s leader for the northern West Bank town, Bassam Saadi, said.

The Israeli army confirmed the capture in a short statement.

Palestinian officials said another Jihad member, Hisham Sarahat, was arrested in the town of Yatta near Hebron in the south.

Also in Al Khalil, the city’s national security force chief General Sharif Abu Maalik said he was detained by Israeli forces for more than five hours before being released.

He said Israeli forces handcuffed and blindfolded him after coming to his house at 4:00 am and asking him if he had any weapons.

He said he had told them all his weapons were in the city’s adminsitrative headquarters building blown up by the Israeli army on Saturday.

Palestinian officials also said the civilian police chief, General Tariq Zeid, had been arrested for several hours later in the day, then released.

And at the city’s polytechnic institute, Israeli forces occupying the town allowed stydents to turn up for an exam but then rounded them up for several hours to carry out identity checks, arresting several of the students, officials said.

Near Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, Israeli special forces backed by tanks surrounded a border police post and called by loudhailer for the men inside to give themselves up.

The six men inside surrendered and were taken off to Israel, a Palestinian security official said, describing the operation as a “kidnapping.”

Shots were fired during the incident, which occurred at 5:00 am (0200 GMT) in a Palestinian self-rule area, but no one was injured, he said.

An Israeli army spokesman said that “six wanted and armed Palestinians were arrested in the Gaza Strip and taken away for investigation,” but gave no more details on the operation.

Near Ramallah in the central West Bank, an Israeli army column entered the village of Burhem and arrested two people, Palestiniann officials said.

The army also raided the Palestinian village of Az Zababida, south of the Jenin, making searches and arrests, a Palestinian security source said.

The troops carried out house-to-house searches, rounding up some 30 Palestinians, the source said. No clashes were reported during the raid.

And Palestinian witnesses said Jewish settlers near Ramallah had set fire to fields near the village of Sinjil, close to Ramallah. No details were immediately available.

Israel has accused Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Authority of failing to crack down on militants, and has said it will take the taske of ensuring security for Israelis into its own hands.

Officials estimate he number of Palestinians in Israeli jails at around 1,000.—AFP