Hamas names three as parliament candidates, despite fear of arrests

Hamas named three of its top leaders as candidates for parliament, despite fears that Israel would capture and arrest the militant groups candidates.

Hamas sources said yesterday that the group's top leaders, Dr. Mahmoud Zahar and Ismail Hanieh in the Gaza Strip and Sheikh Hassan Yousef from the West Bank, who has been imprisoned in Israel for the past month, would contend in the parliamentary elections set for January 25.

In recent weeks Israel has been rounding up hundreds of Hamas activists, including election candidates, campaign managers and regional activists.

Until yesterday Hamas had refrained from naming its candidates in an attempt to keep them from being arrested.

In addition to its known activists, Hamas is expected to add to its list of candidates about five long-term prisoners, wives of prisoners, intifada victims and even Christians. Rasha Rantisi, the widow of Abdel Aziz Rantisi, a Hamas leader killed by Israel two years ago, is also on Hamas' list, along with other women, according to Hamas' Web site.

Young Fatah leader heads Jerusalem list

According to the unofficial results obtained by Haaretz yesterday, current parliament member from the Jerusalem area, the Young Fatah leader Hatem Abdel Kader secured first place in the Jerusalem district primary elections. Yasser Arafat's confidant Ahmed Abdel Rahman, who served as spokesman for the Palestinian cabinet, came in second, along with Ahmed Gheinem, a close associate of jailed Tanzim leader Marwan Barghouti.

The two spots reserved for Christian candidates were secured by Emil Jarjoui, a current parliament member, and Dimitri Diliani, director of the office of Professor Sari Nusseibeh, former president of Al-Quds University in East Jerusalem.

Tuesday's preliminary elections were held in the villages and towns surrounding Jerusalem.

Fatah's original plan was to have activists also set up polling stations within the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem itself. Due to fear of arrests by Israeli police, however, that plan was abandoned.

Fatah activists in neighborhoods west of the separation fence, such as Silwan, Ras al-Amud, Wadi Joz, the Old City and other neighborhoods, had to vote in polling stations east of the barrier in A-Ram and Azzariyeh.

Fatah did not release figures on the number of voters who made it to the polls, but turnout was relatively low in most locations aside from A-Ram and Azzariyeh.

Meanwhile, Hamas' political leader Khaled Meshal said yesterday that the group would not renew the truce with Israel when it expires at the end of this year, and accused the Jewish state of violating the agreement that had vastly reduced violence.

Meshal also restated Hamas' rejection of repeated U.S. and Israeli demands to disarm.

"All circumstances on the ground, the regional political atmosphere and the Palestinian situation are not encouraging to renew the truce," Meshal told The Associated Press in a telephone interview in Damascus. "Hamas is not going to renew the truce because Israel did not abide by the conditions of the truce."

	A Palestinian rescue worker gesturing as an Israel Defense Forces jeep hit with a firebomb sits in the middle of the street, behind him, during clashes between Palestinian youth and IDF troops in the West Bank city of Nablus yesterday. During the raid, a total of 10 Palestinians were injured.
	Photo by: AP