RAMALLAH, Monday, October 17, 2022 (WAFA) – Israeli forces Monday detained seven Palestinians, mostly in overnight raids from various parts of the occupied West Bank, according to local and security sources.
They said that Israeli forces ambushed and opened fire on a group of young men in al-Bireh city neighborhood of Jabal al-Tawil, before rounding up two.
Meanwhile, heavily-armed police detained a woman from the vicinity of the Chain Gate, also known in Arabic as Bab as-Silsila, one of the gates to Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
In Bethlehem district, a convoy of army vehicles stormed Husan town, west of the southern West Bank city, where the soldiers intercepted a vehicle with three young men aboard and detained them.
In Hebron district, the gun-toting soldiers detained a 17-year-old student on his way back from from Tareq Bin Ziad School, one of nine Palestinian schools located in the H2 area of Hebron.
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 4,700 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli prisons and detention centers, including 400 children and 30 female prisoners.
This number includes approximately 800 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.
