RAMALLAH, Friday, May 17, 2024 (WAFA) – Israeli occupation forces Thursday night and predawn Friday injured three Palestinians and detained three others in various parts of the occupied West Bank, according to local and security sources.
They said that the heavily armed soldiers opened fire towards a Palestinian man driving a motorcycle at the entrance of the Jalazone refugee camp, north of Ramallah, wounding him in the foot.
The soldiers confiscated the motorcycle of the man, whose condition was described as moderate.
Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers directly opened fire at a man riding a motorcycle in the northern West Bank city of Qalqiliya, wounding him.
The soldiers prevented paramedics from approaching the scene. No further information on the fate of the man was available.
In the meantime, the sources confirmed a similar raid in old and new Askar refugee camps in Nablus, where the soldiers unleashed barrages of gunfire towards local youth protestors, wounding one by a rubber-coated steel bullet in the head.
The soldiers showed up at a house in the old Askar refugee camp, muscled inside, conducted a thorough search and eventually detained an occupant.
They conducted a raid in the village of Duma, south of Nablus, where they rounded up two villagers and ransacked several houses, turning them upside down.
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 9,300 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli prisons and detention centres, including 250 child prisoners and 78 female prisoners.
This number includes approximately 3,424 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.
