Israeli forces detain 18 Palestinians from West Bank

Israeli forces today detained 18 Palestinians, mostly in predawn raids across the occupied West Bank, according to local and security sources.

They said that Israeli forces rounded up three Palestinians, including a former prisoner, from Ni’lin town, west of the city of Ramallah, and ransacked their houses, turning them upside down.

The gun-toting soldiers showed up at a house in al-Bireh city, muscled inside, conducted a thorough search and eventually detained a teen.

In the southern West Bank, a convoy of army vehicles stormed Dheisha refugee camp, south of Bethlehem, where the soldiers detained four others.

The raid resulted in the killing 22-year-old Omar Manna Fararja by a live round in the chest and wounding six others in their lower extremities.

The sources confirmed that eight others were detained from the southern West Bank district of Hebron.

Six of the eight detainees were identified as residents of Beit Kahel town, northwest of Hebron, and included three brothers. The two others were identified as a resident of Taffuh town, west of Hebron, and a resident of As-Samu’ town, south of the city

Meanwhile, the gun-toting soldiers re-arrested a former prisoner from Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank and ransacked his house, turning it topsy-turvy.

In Jerusalem district, police rounded up another from Shufat refugee camp.

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.

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 4,760 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli prisons and detention centers, including 160 children and 33 female prisoners.

This number includes approximately 820 Palestinians placed under “administrative detention”, that 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.

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.

Source: Palestine News and Information Agency