The Zionist forces have arrested dozens of Hamas members suspected of planning attacks and trying to build up the Palestinian group in the occupied West Bank.

The Zionist forces have arrested dozens of Hamas members suspected of planning attacks and trying to build up the Palestinian group in the occupied West Bank, Shin Bet security service said on Wednesday.

Hamas dismissed the accusations against its members, saying the Zionist entity was just trying to sabotage the Palestinian resistance relationship with other Arab powers.

Shin Bet's announcement followed the roadside shooting of a Zionist settler on Monday, though his killing was not claimed by any faction and the entity's officials said it looked like an attack by a lone Palestinian.

Around 40 Hamas members, some of them senior, were detained around the city of Nablus in recent months on suspicion of "working to renew Hamas activity in Samaria (northern West Bank), including through preparing the groundwork for terrorist activity," the Shin Bet said in a statement.

It said the detainees had received instruction from Houssam Badran, a Hamas spokesman in Qatar, as well as funds through a gold dealer active in Jordan.

Hamas said on Wednesday it was committed to holy war against the Zionist entity. "But at the same time we deny any connection between the brother Hussam Badran and resistance in the West Bank," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.

Shin Bet said the detainees would be indicted in a Zionist military court soon. There was no information on how the Hamas suspects might plead in court.

Palestinians seek the Gaza Strip and the West Bank alongside east Jerusalem, as part of a future state, where peace talks with the Zionist entity collapsed last year after the Abbas-Hamas unity deal.