RAMALLAH, Friday, August 2, 2024 (WAFA) – Israeli occupation forces today detained 13 Palestinians in multiple raids across the occupied West Bank, according to local and security sources.
They said that Israeli occupation forces rounded up two teenagers from the Ajjul village, northwest of the central West Bank city of Ramallah.
Meanwhile, the occupation forces rounded up another from the African Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem.
In the northern West Bank, the Director of the Palestine Prisoner’s Society (PPS), Muntaser Sammur, confirmed that the soldiers manning the Tayasir checkpoint, east of Tubas, detained a young man from the al-Yamun town, west of Jenin.
The Director of PPS Office in Tubas, Kamal Bani-Odeh, said that the occupation soldiers manning the Al-Hamra checkpoint in the Jordan Valley stopped and detained a young man from the Tammun town, south of Tubas, and held his vehicle.
In the predawn and early morning hours, a convoy of military vehicles stormed the city of Nablus, where the soldiers rounded up three people, seized a vehicle and ransacked several houses, turning them upside down.
They also conducted a raid into the city of Tulkarm, leading to re-arresting a former prisoner.
In the Bethlehem governorate, the occupation forces barged their way into the ad-Doha town, and detained two people.
They also rounded up two others; a former prisoner from al-Asakra village, east of Bethlehem, and a resident of the nearby village of Kisan.
Moreover, the occupation forces detained Jerusalem's former Grand Mufti and main preacher of Al-Aqsa Mosque, Sheikh Ekrema Sabri, from his house in the al-Sawana neighbourhood in occupied Jerusalem.
Sabri’s detention brings the total number of Palestinians detained on Friday to at least 14.
The occupation 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 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 9,700 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli prisons and detention centres, including 250 child prisoners and 79 female prisoners.
This number includes approximately 3,380 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.
