RAMALLAH, Saturday, April 27, 2024 (WAFA) – Israeli occupation forces Friday evening and dawn Saturday detained at least 20 Palestinians in multiple raids across the occupied West Bank, according to local and security sources.
They said that the occupation forces rounded up at least 20 Palestinians, including a woman, several minors and former prisoners, in multiple raids, mainly in the districts of Ramalah, Hebron, Nablus, Tulkarm, Jenin and Jerusalem.
As part of the detention raids and in the district of Tulkarm, the occupation forces barged their way into the city of Tulkarm, where the soldiers rounded up a young man after beating him up and ransacking his family house.
Meanwhile, the gun-toting soldiers manning a checkpoint near the city of Jericho stopped and detained a young man from the town of Rummana village, west of the city of Jenin, on Friday evening.
The occupation forces have detained approximately 8,480 Palestinians from the West Bank, including Jerusalem, since October 7.
The occupation forces frequently raid Palestinian houses almost daily across the West Bank on the pretext of searching for “wanted” Palestinians, triggering clashes with residents.
These raids 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 9,500 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli prisons and detention centres, including 200 child prisoners and 80 female prisoners.
This number includes approximately 3,660 Palestinians placed under “administrative detention”, which 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.
The 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.
