GAZA, June 11 (UPI) -- Israeli troops Tuesday arrested a top member of the militant Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in the West Bank town of Ramallah, a statement from the group said.
An Israeli army force raided Abdel Rahim Malouh's house and arrested him, the statement said.
Jamil Majdalawi, a senior PFLP leader in Gaza, condemned the arrest, adding Israel was responsible for Malouh's life.
Malouh is also a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization executive committee chaired by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. However, the PFLP rejects peace agreements signed between Israel and the Palestinians.
He is the second top PFLP leader to be apprehended in recent days. Palestinian security forces arrested PFLP chief Ahmed Saadat in April as part of a U.S.-brokered agreement to end Israel's siege of Arafat.
Saadat, together with four PFLP militants, was sent to a jail in the West Bank town of Jericho to be guarded by British and U.S. security officers.
Malouh's arrest was part of Israel's continued operations in the Palestinian territories. Palestinians have protested against the operations and have called for international intervention and a peace conference for the region.
"The road to peace needs the implementation of the Security Council resolutions related to solving the current conflict," Nabil Abu Rudeineh, an Arafat aides, said. "It is important to hold as soon as possible the regional peace conference."
Meanwhile, Israeli infantry troops supported by personnel carriers and armored vehicles broke into the U.N.-run Education and Science College in Ramallah and held dozens of its students, Palestinian security sources said.
Israeli soldiers handcuffed and arrested about 60 students and three teachers after interrogating them, a student at the college told United Press International in a telephone interview. The student added 270 students were being held in the college's yard.
The Israeli army has been operating in the Ramallah area since Sunday, when dozens of tanks and armored vehicles raided the town, besieged Arafat's headquarters and arrested dozens of people. The move followed last week's bombing that killed 16 Israelis.
