'Raids brought respite for me'

Ramallah, West Bank: For a Palestinian Cabinet minister arrested by Israel, the only relief from gruelling 12-hour interrogations came when Hezbollah rocket attacks from Lebanon sent everyone prisoners and guards alike scurrying into bomb shelters.

Wasfi Kibha, the Palestinian Minister for Prisoner Affairs, spoke about his nearly five weeks in detention yesterday, a day after his release. He was the third to be freed since Israel arrested dozens of Hamas politicians in a crackdown against the radical Palestinian Islamic movement on June 29.

"I spent 11 days under heavy interrogation. They would take me at 5am in the morning, hands and legs cuffed, and place me in a chair without a back until 5pm in the evening," Kibha told The Associated Press by telephone from Jenin.

"The only rest I got was during the sirens when Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel. They would take me down into a cell underground and they would leave to take shelter somewhere in the jail."

Kibha said he was released by a military judge for lack of proof about him belonging to a terrorist body.