Israeli forces today detained five Palestinians and wounded another across the occupied West Bank, according to local and security sources.
They said that Israeli forces rounded up a Palestinian and ransacked his family house in Jalazone refugee camp, north of Ramallah.
During the unfolding confrontations, the gun-toting soldiers opened fire towards local youths attempting to block their passage, wounding a youth, in his 20s, by a live bullet in the chest.
The casualty was rushed to a hospital, where medics described his condition as stable.
In the northern West Bank, a convoy of army vehicles stormed Jalqamus village, southeast of Jenin, where the soldiers broke into the family houses of two former prisoners, conducted thorough searches, re-arrested them and seized their vehicle.
Director of the Palestine Prisoner’s Society (PPS) Office in Tubas, Kamal Bani-Odeh, confirmed a raid in Aqraba town, north of Tubas city, resulting in the detention of another.
In the southern West Bank, the heavily-armed soldiers detained a teenage from his family house in Jaber neighborhood of the Old City of Hebron.
On Wednesday night, police rounded up a father-of-five after breaking into his family house in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Sur Baher, and denied him access to a lawyer.
The detainee’s wife is already sentenced to ten years in Israeli imprisonment.
Another was detained from Jaber neighborhood, close to the Ibrahimi Mosque in the Old City of Hebron. The detainee was escorted to the permanently-staffed Diwan a-Rajabi checkpoint, also known as Checkpoint 160, located between the neighborhoods near the mosque and the neighborhoods to the south of it.
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 4,700 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli prisons and detention centers, including 150 children and 34 female prisoners.
This number includes approximately 835 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 & Info Agency