A secret meeting took place between Israeli and a Hamas official this past week, the London based newspaper Al-Shraq Al-Awsat reported on Saturday. According to Palestinian sources quoted in the report, Dr. Omar Abdel Razeq the former Treasury Minister in the Hamas government of Ismail Haniyeh was taken from Nablus, in the West Bank, to the Israeli city of Netanya on Tuesday. The sources suggested that the meeting was connected a call by Hamas leaders in Damascus urging West Bank operatives to kidnap Israeli settlers in order to use them as leverage to free Palestinian prisoners. Sources indicated that Israel wanted to warn Hamas against kidnapping West Bank settlers.
On his part, Abdel Razeq denied the report, saying the information was "completely untrue" and "lacking any basis".
