Israel dragnet on report Palestinians grab soldier

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Police set up roadblocks in central Israel Thursday on suspicion Palestinians had abducted a soldier, Israeli media report.

A Palestinian news agency quoted a little-known militant group, Al-Quds Army, claiming it had captured a soldier.

The Israeli dragnet, which began in the early afternoon and lasted into the evening, froze traffic around Ben-Gurion Airport on the highway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

The army said the clampdown was prompted by a soldier who reported seeing what appeared to be an attempt by unknown persons to bundle another soldier into a car.

Palestinian militants have in the past abducted soldiers at hitch-hiking stations.

From the West Bank city of Bethlehem, the Maan news agency reported it received a statement from Al-Quds Army in which the group said it was holding a soldier seized near the airport, Israel's main international gateway.

Al-Quds is the Arabic name for Jerusalem.

A Palestinian security official said the Al-Quds Army, while fairly obscure, was believed to have links to the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah, a foe of the Jewish state.

The Palestinian security official could not immediately confirm that such a claim of responsibility had been made.

(Reporting by Alastair Macdonald in Jerusalem and Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah; editing by Michael Roddy)