(Adds Israeli military spokeswoman, paragraph 5) By Mohammed Assadi RAMALLAH, West Bank, June 4 (Reuters) - An Israeli general on Monday ordered two jailed Hamas cabinet ministers and a legislator from the Islamist group held without trial for six months, one of their lawyers said. Minister of State Wasfi Kabha, Education Minister Naser al-Deen al-Shaer and Abdel-Rahman Zeidan, a Hamas lawmaker, were detained by Israel, with more than 30 other Palestinian officials, in the occupied West Bank last month. Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz has said the detentions could put pressure on Hamas to stop rocket attacks from Gaza. Palestinian lawyer Osama al-Saadi said Major-General Gadi Shamni, head of the Israeli military's central command, signed an order to place Kabha, Shaer and Zeidan in what Israel calls administrative detention until Dec. 4. "The detention orders were issued due to the clear and present danger to the region and its residents," an Israeli military spokeswoman said in Tel Aviv, declining to elaborate. Hamas, a militant group that does not recognise Israel, came to power in a Palestinian election last year and formed a unity government with President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction in March. Israel's use of administrative detention against Palestinians, effectively jailing them without trial on security grounds, has been condemned by human rights groups. "The arrests of ministers and lawmakers are political arrests," Saadi said. He said Israeli authorities lacked evidence to win any court case against the men and had chosen instead "to return to the old way of sending people into administrative detention". The arrests of elected Palestinian officials have raised international concern and the detentions last month led the U.S. State Department to express misgivings about the Israeli action. Over the past year, Israel has detained about 40 elected Hamas officials. They include members of the current unity government and ministers from the previous Hamas-led cabinet.
