Bethlehem - Ma'an - The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) expressed concern on Sunday over what it termed an arrest campaign waged by security services in the West Bank.

In a statement, the media group expressed particular concern over the arrest of former Al-Aqsa TV journalist and West Bank office director Mohammed Eshtiwi.

Eshtiwi's wife said Palestinian military intelligence arrested her husband on 14 November.

They came to his house last Thursday, but he was visiting the doctor for treatment. He went to PA headquarters in Tulkarem, where they arrested him, but was released to meet his brother who was himself released from Israeli jail after three years of imprisonment this week. He will have to return to prison in Ramallah, police told him.

Meanwhile, security forces also arrested former Al-Aqsa TV cameraman Osaid Amarneh and former correspondents Tarek Abu Zeid and A'laa At-Titi over the past week, according to MADA.

Security forces have arrested Al-Aqsa reporters and photographers several times in the past three years, after the government of caretaker Prime Minister Salam Fayyad shut it down on 16 September 2007. The station is Hamas' official broadcaster.

The de facto government in Gaza has also obstructed the work of Palestinian Public TV in the Gaza Strip for apparently political reasons. It was shut down on 4 March 2008.

"MADA Center condemns the arrests of journalists," the group reiterated, "calling for their cessation and release [of] all detained journalists. MADA considers [such] practices a blatant violation of freedom of expression."