Security official and police on caught two Hamas legislators Monday who hid in a Red Cross building in Jerusalem for 18 months.
The two men, Khaled Abu Arfa and Mohammed Totah, are legislators wanted for “Hamas activities,” said police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld. They used the Red Cross facility as a hideout after warrants were issued for their arrest in July 2010.
The Red Cross did not explain its involvement in the use of the building by the fugitives, and its spokeswoman Cecilia Goin only stated, "I can confirm that they were arrested around 1:15 p.m. Police came into the compound and arrested them”
Their Jerusalem identification cards had been revoked and they were not permitted to be within the city. They escaped detection even though two other Hamas members who were with them previously were arrested and sent out of the capital.
The Red Cross building is located in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarreh, populated mostly by Arabs and a hotbed of terrorist activities, including brutal attacks on Jewish motorists.
The Red Cross ostensibly is non-political but has been active in pressuring Israel’s Magen David Adom to surrender its Jewish star (Magen David) symbol on its ambulances in Judea and Samaria.
The organization also did not succeed in pressuring Hamas to honor the Geneva Convention and allow kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit and his family to communicate during his five year captivity in Gaza.