The Palestinian Authority (PA) is conducting widespread arrests of Hamas clerics in Judea and Samaria to prevent political dissent, according to the British Guardian. The crackdown follows the closure of Hamas-linked charities, several of which were raided by IDF forces.

Among those recently arrested was Sheikh Maher Kharas, a prominent Hamas fundamentalist cleric. The PA head of religious affairs in Shechem, Hassan Hilali, defended the arrests as preventing preachers from changing "the mosque into something with a political identity, or a certain ideology, or linked to a particular group or cult."

His predecessor, Sheikh Fayyad al-Akbar, charged that he and others have been replaced "by people close to Fatah" who were ordered to recognize the faction as the sole authority in the PA, although Hamas won legislative elections a year and a half ago.