Interior Minister Ronny Bar-On has cancelled the Israeli residency documents of Palestinian Minister for Jerusalem Affairs Khaled Abu Arafah, and three Palestinian parliament members, Muhammad Abu-Tir, Muhammad Tutah, and Ahmed Adun.
On Thursday, the 30-day ultimatum set to the four Hamas members to explain why Israel should not cancel their residencies expired.
Israel demanded that the four cancel their membership in Palestinian Hamas government institutions – the parliament and government – as a condition to keep their residencies.
Bar-On rejected requests by lawyers representing the Hamas members to delay the decision by 30 additional days.
'No games with Hamas'
Bar-On said that “the prime minister said he has no intention of playing games with Hamas. Hamas is a hostile organization. People who have roles in the legislative council and the Hamas government have no place in the State of Israel. The right to hold permanent residencies comes with the duty to show loyalty to the State of Israel, there should not be double loyalties.”
Abu Arafa, like many others in the Hamas government and Palestinian parliament, was arrested Thursday morning as part of the wide operation of arrests in the West Bank being carried out by Israel.
The attorney general told the security forces to carry out criminal arrests against Hamas members in accordance with the Terror Prevention Act.
The arrested Hamas members have launched a hunger strike.
Meanwhile, the central command chief said that the arrestees would not be used as bargaining chips.
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