JERUSALEM, Thursday, November 21, 2019 (WAFA) – Israeli forces today overnight detained at least five Palestinians, including the Jerusalem governor, from various parts of the West Bank, said the Palestine Prisoner’s Society (PPS).

PPS confirmed in a press release that Israeli intelligence officers detained the Palestinian governor of Jerusalem Adnan Ghaith after ransacking his house in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan.

Ghaith was previously detained by Israeli police over 13 times along with other high-profile officials, including in April 2019 following escalating tensions inside Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound over the closure of the metal gate leading to Bab al-Rahmeh.

He was also previously investigated over his involvement in the arrest of dual US-Palestinian national Issam Akel, in October 2018 for the fraudulent selling of Palestinian property to Israeli settler-colonialist groups in Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces detained a Palestinian from Beit Ummar town, northwest of Hebron.

The detainee was identified as a 23-year-old undergraduate female student of the Palestine Polytechnic University.

PPS confirmed a similar Israeli military raid in Ash-Shuyukh town, northeast of Hebron city, resulting in the detention of a Palestinian.

In Bethlehem district, Israeli military vehicles stormed Duheisha refugee camp, where soldiers rounded up two Palestinians after breaking into and thoroughly searching their houses.

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.

K.F.