RAMALLAH, Wednesday, January 11, 2023 (WAFA) – Israeli forces today detained 23 Palestinians, mostly in predawn raids across the occupied West Bank, according to local and security sources.
They said that Israeli forces rounded up two teens and ransacked the houses of their families in Ni'lin town, west of the city of Ramallah.
In Jerusalem district, the gun-toting soldiers barged their way into Beit Duqqu village, northwest of the city, where they rounded up three others and searched their houses, turning them upside down.
The sources confirmed a similar raid in Sur Baher neighborhood, on the southeastern outskirts of East Jerusalem, where police brutally assaulted and detained two others.
In the southern West Bank, a convoy of army vehicles stormed Tuqu‘ town, south of Bethlehem city, where the soldiers detained another.
The heavily-armed soldiers showed up at a house in Dheisha refugee camp, south of the city, muscled inside, conducted a thorough search, and eventually rounded up another.
The sources confirmed another raid in al-Khader town, south of the city, leading to the detention of another.
Elsewhere in the southern West Bank, the sources said that ten others were detained in multiple raids across Hebron district.
Two of the ten detainees were identified as brothers from Yatta city, and three others, including two brothers, as residents of Ad-Dhahiriya city, southwest of Hebron.
One of the five others was identified as a resident of Surif town, northwest of Hebron, another as a resident of Hadab al-Fawwar village, southwest of the city, and three others, including two brothers, as a residents of Beit Awwa town, west of Hebron.
In the northern West Bank, the soldiers forcibly entered and ransacked a house in Fahma village, south of Jenin, and eventually detained another.
In the Jordan Valley, Israeli troops broke into a house in Jericho city, and detained two brothers as a means to force another member of the family to turn himself to the army.
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 150 children and 34 female prisoners.
This number includes approximately 835 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.
