Israeli forces today and Thursday evening detained nine Palestinians and wounded two others in the West Bank districts of Tubas, Jenin and Jerusalem, according to local and medical sources.
Director of the Palestine Prisoner’s Society (PPS) Office in Tubas, Kamal Bani-Odeh, said that Israeli forces rounded up five Palestinians, including a university student, from the northern West Bank city.
Palestinian Red Crescent medics confirmed that they treated a 60-year-old man who was shot by Israeli soldiers in the head as he was exiting a local mosque after performing the Fajr prayer. The man was rushed to a hospital and his condition was described as serious.
They added that the soldiers also shot a young man by a live round in the thigh in the course of the ensuing confrontations.
In Jenin district, the gun-toting soldiers manning the Za’tara checkpoint, south of Nablus, stopped and detained two young men from Qabatiya town, south of Jenin.
Meanwhile, soldiers manning the permanently-staffed al-Jib checkpoint, northwest of Jerusalem, stopped and detained a man from the Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan.
Police also detained a minor from al-Sadiya neighborhood in the Old City of Jerusalem.
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 4,450 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli prisons and detention centers, including 175 children and 27 female prisoners.
This number includes 670 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