RAMALLAH, Thursday, March 14, 2019 (WAFA) – Israeli forces detained 16 Palestinians, including six university students, during multiple overnight raids across the West Bank, said the Palestine Prisoner’s Society (PPS).

It confirmed in a press release that Israeli forces detained six Palestinians from the central West Bank district of Ramallah and al-Bireh. The detainees were identified as students enrolled in Birzeit University.

Meanwhile, Israeli police rounded up a Waqf-appointed guard from outside Bab al-Nather, also known as Bab al-Majlis, one of the gates leading to Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, raising the number of Waqf-appointed guards detained since Wednesday evening to at least four.

Another Palestinian was rounded up from Jericho district in the Jordan Valley.

In Bethlehem district, Israeli military vehicles raided al-Doha town, west of Bethlehem city, where soldiers detained two Palestinians.

As soldiers showed up at the family house of one of the two detainees in al-Doha, they fired tear gas canisters and stun bombs inside it, causing several family members to suffocate. All suffocation cases received treatment.

Israeli forces also conducted separate raids into Hindaza area and al-Khader town, south and east of Bethlehem respectively, resulting in the detention of three people.

In Hebron district, also in the south of the West Bank, soldiers rounded up two Palestinians after ransacking their families’ houses in Hebron city and Dora town, south of the city.

PPS confirmed that another Palestinian was detained from the northern West Bank village of Deir Abu Daif, east of Jenin.

This came as Israeli troops conducted drills in Palestinian farmlands isolated by Israel’s separation wall in the vicinity to Bartaa military checkpoint, southwest of Jenin.

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.

K.F./M.K.