The Israeli military on Tuesday arrested a Hamas lawmaker for east Jerusalem who Israel expelled to the West Bank last year, a Hamas source told AFP.

Mohamed Abu Tir was arrested early on Tuesday at his temporary residence in Kufr Aqab, a neighbourhood near the Palestinian city of Ramallah, a Hamas official in the West Bank told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the reported arrest.

Ahmed Bahr, vice-president of the Hamas-dominated Palestinian Legislative Council, condemned the arrest in a statement, accusing Israel of "kidnapping" Abu Tir.

"The Zionist plans to empty the West Bank of its lawmakers and leaders will not succeed," he added.

Abu Tir was arrested in June 2010 and expelled to the West Bank in December 2010 after he refused to leave east Jerusalem despite an Israeli interior ministry order revoking his residency permit over his ties to Hamas.

Twenty of the 74 Hamas members elected to the 132-member Palestinian Legislative Council are currently in Israeli detention.

Most of them, including two former ministers, have been arrested in the West Bank since October 2010, and a majority were among the Hamas members arrested by Israel in 2006 in the wake of the capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit by militants in the Gaza Strip.