Israeli military forces have re-arrested two members of the Gaza-based Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, in the occupied West Bank city of al-Khalil (Hebron).

On Sunday, Israeli soldiers raided the houses of Hatem Qafisha, a member of the 132-seat Palestinian Legislative Council, and Isa al-Jabari, a former minister in Gaza’s local government, and took them into custody.

Qafisha was freed from jail in March 2015, while Jabari was released in April the same year after 10 months in Israeli administrative detention.

Qafisha and Jabari have spent a total of 12 and 9 years in Israeli prisons, respectively.

After the arrest of Qafisha, some unknown people put his car on fire.

More than 7,000 Palestinian prisoners are currently held in some 17 Israeli jails, dozens of whom are serving multiple life sentences.

Over 500 detainees are under administrative detention, which is a sort of imprisonment without trial or charge that allows Israel to incarcerate Palestinians for up to six months. The detention order can be renewed for indefinite periods.

Israeli forces have been fatally shooting and arresting an increasing number of Palestinians amid an ongoing crackdown by the Tel Aviv regime since last October.

The stepped-up oppressive measures seek to quell Palestinian protests at the Israeli regime’s imposition in August last year of restrictions on the entry of Palestinian worshipers into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East al-Quds (Jerusalem).

More than 160 Palestinians, including children and women, have lost their lives at the hands of Israeli forces since the beginning of last October.