RAMALLAH: A senior Palestinian official on Sunday revealed that Israel plans to expel 300 Palestinian political figures from occupied Jerusalem.

“The expulsion of political figures is the first step before the expulsion of Palestinian families from Jerusalem ... the plan is in accordance with the Israeli military order under which the Israeli occupation authorities will expel 70,000 Palestinian from Jerusalem and the West Bank to the Gaza Strip and other countries under the pretext that they do not have residency permits,” said Khaled Abu Arafeh, a Jerusalem-based Hamas legislator.

The development came a week after Jerusalem police confiscated the Israeli identity cards of four Hamas legislators and gave them until July to leave the city after they refused to meet Israeli demands to quit the movement.

Arafeh, Mohammed Abu Tir, Mohammed Totah and Ahmed Atoun are all Hamas legislators who refused to give up their duties within the Hamas Legislative Council. The Jerusalem police took their identity cards after the Israeli High Court of Justice ruled that it would not prevent their expulsion from Jerusalem.

Israel warned the four that they must renounce their Hamas membership or risk losing their residency rights in East Jerusalem. Abu Tir was released from an Israeli prison last month after four years since his arrest, along with 65 other Hamas members, in response to the capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2006. After his release, Abu Tir was prohibited from entering Jerusalem.

Israel captured East Jerusalem in the June 1967 War, annexed it and has since built settlements there that are home to more than 200,000 Israelis. Control over the city has been seen as the most sensitive and thorniest issue of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Palestinians hope to make East Jerusalem their capital but Israel says the city is its eternal capital.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) and Israel started US-sponsored proximity talks earlier this month in an attempt to pave the way for direct peace talks that would eventually lead to a peace agreement to put an end to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

By MOHAMMED MAR’I