Israeli troops arrested one of the top West Bank leaders of Hamas and destroyed the West Bank home of a Palestinian as UN chief Ban Ki-moon made an unannounced visit to the region Tuesday to try to calm nearly three weeks of violent Israeli crackdown. "During the night, forces of the army and the Shin Bet (internal security service) arrested Hassan Yusef, a Hamas leader, in Beitunia, southwest of Ramallah," an army statement said. Yusef's arrest was confirmed by the Palestinian security services. Yusef, who was a founding member of Hamas in the late 1980s, has spent years in Israeli jails. He was elected to the Palestinian parliament from prison in 2006 and was only released from his last stint in jail in June. Hamas has always said that Yusef works only for its political wing, not its military wing. The Israeli army said the troops also demolished the home of Palestinian Maher Al-Hashlamoun in the flashpoint city of Hebron. Last week, the Israeli government ordered an intensification of punitive home demolitions in response to a wave of stabbing and shooting attacks and other deadly unrest. It says the controversial policy acts as a deterrent but critics say the main victims of such demolitions are relatives forced to pay for another person's actions. The home destroyed on Tuesday was an apartment inside a larger building. Witnesses said soldiers used jackhammers and other equipment to destroy the apartment, rather than explosives or bulldozers, as has been used in the past. On October 6, Israel demolished the homes of two Palestinians.
