RAMALLAH, Wednesday, March 22, 2023 (WAFA) – Israeli forces today detained 27 Palestinians and injured some dozen others, overwhelmingly in predawn large-scale raids 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 Khirbet Abu Falah village, northeast of the city of Ramallah. A convoy of army vehicles stormed Qaddura refugee camp, located just outside downtown Ramallah, where the soldiers broke into the family house of a prisoner who has been behind in Israeli bars for two weeks, and conducted a thorough search. In Jerusalem district, heavily-armed Israeli police detained another al-Tur neighborhood, east of the Old City of Jerusalem. The gun-toting soldiers detained two others and searched the houses of their families in separate raids in al-Eizariya city, east of Jerusalem, and Anata town, northeast of the city. In the southern West Bank, the sources confirmed a raid in Ad-Doha town, west of Bethlehem, resulting in the detention of another. The soldiers carried out a similar raid in al-Walaja village, northwest of the city, leading to the detention of another. They detained three others after stopping their vehicle in Aqbet Hasna area, on the main road leading to Bethlehem’s western villages. In Hebron district, the gun-toting soldiers showed up at several houses in Beit Ummar town, north of the city, muscled inside, conducted thorough searches and eventually rounded up four others. During ensuing confrontations, the soldiers fired volleys of tear gas canisters towards local youths attempting to block their entry, leading to several suffocation cases and hitting water tanks at rooftops of houses. The sources confirmed that two others were rounded up from Dura town and al-Fawwar refugee camp, south and southwest of the city. In the Jordan Valley, armored military vehicles stormed Aqabat Jaber refugee camp in Jericho city, where the soldiers detained three others and ransacking several houses, leaving behind widespread vandalism. The soldiers forcibly entered a house in Ein Sultan refugee camp, northwest of Jericho city, rounded up another. As the military vehicles stormed the city, the soldiers opened live fire towards local residents and their vehicles, hitting Suleiman Abu Srour, a photojournalist who works with the Palestinian News and Information Agency (WAFA, by a rubber-coated steel bullet in the foot and another by bullet shrapnel in the shoulder. Both casualties were rushed to a hospital for treatment. In the northern West Bank, the soldiers forcibly entered a house in the Nablus city neighborhood of al-Makhfeyah, ransacked it and detained two brothers. They also barged their way into Askar refugee camp, east of the city, broke into the house of a slain Palestinian and detained his brother. Later today, undercover Israeli forces, known as the Musta’ribeen, sneaked their way into the city, and opened fire towards a man, wounding him, and eventually abducted him. Elsewhere in the northern West Bank, the sources confirmed a raid in Ya’bad town, southwest of the city, leading to the detention of four others. 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 4,800 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli prisons and detention centers, including 170 children and 29 female prisoners. This number includes 967 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 & Information Agency