RAMALLAH, Friday, May 13, 2022 (WAFA) – Israeli forces Friday morning and Thursday evening detained at least four Palestinians, mostly from the northern West Bank, according to local and security sources.
They said that Israeli troops today morning rounded up a Palestinian after storming and searching his house in Tubas city, as confirmed by Director of the Jenin Office of the Palestine Prisoner’s Society, Kamal Bani-Odeh.
Bani-Odeh added that the soldiers rounded up another after stopping him at a flying checkpoint near Hebron city on Thursday evening.
He identified the detainee as a resident of Tammoun town, south of Tubas.
Also on Thursday evening, soldiers manning a flying checkpoint at Bal‘a junction, east of Tulkarm, detained another from Nur Shams refugee camp.
In the southern West Bank, the gun-toting soldiers showed up at a house in the southern part of Hebron city, muscled inside, conducted a thorough search and ultimately detained another.
Israeli forces frequently raid Palestinian houses almost on a daily basis across the West Bank on the pretext of searching for "wanted" Palestinians, triggering clashes with residents.
These raids, which take place also in areas under the full control of the Palestinian Authority, are conducted with no need for a search warrant, whenever and wherever the military chooses in keeping with its sweeping arbitrary powers.
Under Israeli military law army commanders have full executive, legislative and judicial authority over 3 million Palestinians living in the West Bank. Palestinians have no say in how this authority is exercised.
According to the latest figures from Addameer, the Palestinian Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, there are currently 4,450 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli prisons and detention centers.
This number includes approximately 530 Palestinians placed under “administrative detention”, that allows the detention of Palestinians without charge or trial for renewable intervals ranging between three and six months based on undisclosed evidence that even a detainee’s lawyer is barred from viewing.
Mass arrest of Palestinians is nothing new. According to a 2017 report by Addameer, over the past 50 years, more than 800,000 Palestinians have been imprisoned or detained by Israel, this figure is now believed to be closer to 1 million. This means that about 40% of Palestinian men and boys living under military occupation have been deprived of their freedom. Almost every Palestinian family has suffered the imprisonment of a loved one.
K.F.
