SALFIT: Israeli occupation forces today detained three Palestinians in raids across the occupied West Bank, according to security and local sources.
They said that the occupation forces physically assaulted and rounded up a Palestinian from Marda village, north of the city of Salfit, and ransacked his family house, turning it upside down.
Meanwhile, the gun-toting soldiers barged their way into a house in the Nablus city neighbourhood of Ras al-Ein, conducted a thorough search and eventually detained another.
In the Jordan Valley, the Director of the Palestine Prisoner’s Society, Eid Barahmeh, said that soldiers manning a checkpoint, south of the city of Jericho, stopped and detained a 17-year-old teen.
The sources confirmed similar raids in Duma and Talfit villages, south of Nablus, where the soldiers searched several houses.
In Ramallah district, a convoy of military vehicles stormed al-Mughayyir village, east of the city, where the troops muscled inside several houses and interrogated the occupants.
During ensuing confrontations, the soldiers fired volleys of tear gas canisters and concussion grenades. No injuries were reported though.
The occupation 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 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 9,500 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli prisons and detention centres, including 200 child prisoners and 80 female prisoners.
This number includes approximately 3,660 Palestinians place
d under ‘administrative detention’, which 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.
The 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 – WAFA