Israeli forces detain six Palestinians, wound two others in West Bank raids

Israeli forces predawn Thursday and Wednesday evening detained six Palestinians and wounded two others in various parts of 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 al-Am’ari refugee camp, south of the city of Ramallah.

The forces also rounded up another from al-Bireh city neighborhood of Umm Sharayet.

In the northern West Bank, the soldiers showed up at the family house of a high school student in Tammun town, south of Tubas, broke inside, conducted a thorough search and eventually detained him.

In the southern West Bank, the sources confirmed a raid in Dheisheh refugee camp, south of Bethlehem, resulting in the detention of another.

On Wednesday evening, Israeli police rounded up three others from the Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan.

According to the Wadi Hilweh Information Center, police shot and wounded two teens, both aged 17, one the chest and the other in the leg, in the course of confrontations in the Ein Al-Lozeh neighborhood in Silwan.

The condition of the two injuries were described between serious and moderate.

Police eventually detained the two teens as soon as they were injured, and prevented the people from reaching them, while the ambulance came and they were taken to the hospital.

Police assaulted a young man and detained him on Al-Ein Street in the same neighborhood.

Also on Wednesday evening, the gun-toting soldiers manning the permanently-staffed Jalameh checkpoint stopped and rounded up another Palestinian who was on his way back from work in Israel.

The detainee was identified as the father of Aref Lahlouh, 20, who was gunned down by Israeli forces after allegedly carrying out a stabbing attack near the colonial settlement of Kadumim.

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 & Information Agency