Israeli army arrested the speaker of Palestinian parliament at a checkpoint in the West Bank on Thursday, witnesses and Palestinian sources said.

Aziz al-Dewik, also a Hamas leader, was arrested when traveling from Ramallah city to Nablus where he lives, the sources said.

Al-Dewik had been rounded up with dozens of Hamas lawmakers in the West Bank in 2006 in Israeli response to the capturing of an Israeli soldier by Hamas in Gaza, and was freed in 2009 after three years in detention.

The speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) is the second highest position after the presidency. Given the feud between Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party, the PLC has been inactive for years.