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Palestinian security forces arrested 10 members of the Islamic Jihad in the Jenin refugee camp on Monday, a local leader of the radical movement said.

Ghassan Sa'adi, head of the Islamic Jihad in the Jenin refugee camp, located in the occupied West Bank, told AFP he did not know why they had been detained.

Palestinian security officials confirmed the arrests, but refused to provide further details.

Islamic Jihad believes in armed struggle against Israel and enjoys more freedom in Hamas-run Gaza Strip than in the West Bank, which is run by the Western-backed Palestinian Authority.

Formed in 1980, the Iran-inspired group was the first Palestinian Islamist organisation to take up arms against Israel.

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PA security: Jenin arrests not based on political affiliation

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- A wave of detentions by Palestinian security forces in Jenin is not targeting any political group, the security services spokesman said Monday.

Islamic Jihad said on Monday that forces from the Fatah-led PA detained five of its members in the northern West Bank.

Forces have led a security crackdown in the Jenin district after assailants opened fire on the home of Jenin Governor Qaddura Musa in early May. He was killed by a heart attack the same night.

Adnan Dhmeiri, PA security spokesman, said forces had detained just under 70 suspects linked to the shooting and another assault on the police station in Jalqamus village near Jenin.

Some of those detained have since been released, he said.

But the spokesman assured that all arrests were due to suspected criminal activity, rather than political affiliation.

Since the 2007 split between the Hamas-run administration in the Gaza Strip and Fatah-led authority in the West Bank, both governments are accused by human rights groups of detaining political opponents.