RAMALLAH, Thursday, 24 November 2022 (WAFA) – Israeli forces today detained 14 Palestinians, mostly in multiple predawn raids across the occupied West Bank, according to local and security sources.
They said that Israeli forces rounded up a 17-year-old teen from al-Mughayyir village, east of the city of Ramallah.
While in the village, the gun-toting soldiers brutally beat three other teens and held them for several hours before eventually releasing them.
The sources confirmed that three others, all residents of Beit Rima village, northwest of the city, were detained.
Two of them were detained after being stopped at a flying checkpoint close to the colonial settlement of Halamish, also known as Neve Tzuf. The other was rounded at the metal gate at the entrance of Nabi Saleh village.
The soldiers also detained another and ransacked his family house in Qaddura refugee camp, located just outside downtown Ramallah.
In Jerusalem district, a convoy of army vehicles stormed Anata town, northeast of the city, where the soldiers detained another and ransacked his family house, turning it upside down.
In the southern West Bank, the sources confirmed a raid in Arab Ar-Rashayida village, east of Bethlehem, resulting in the detention of another.
Elsewhere in the southern West Bank, the heavily-armed troops barged their way into Beit Ummar town, north of Hebron, muscled inside a number of houses, conducted thorough searches and eventually rounded up three others.
During subsequent confrontations that erupted close to the local secondary school, the soldiers fired volleys of tear gas canisters towards the residents, causing a number to suffocate.
Two others were detained from Hebron district; one from Khirbet Qilqis and the other from Dura city.
In the northern West Bank, the soldiers forcibly entered a house in Azzun town, east of Qalqiliya city, tempered with its contents and detained another.
A 15-year-old teen was detained from Huwara town, south of Nablus city.
On Wednesday evening, the soldiers broke into an event hall in the southern part of Hebron city, and forcibly broke up a party for a prisoner’s family.
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 190 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.
