21 PALESTINIANS NABBED BY IOF IN WEST BANK, AL QUDS

West Bank, 10 Jumadal Akhir 1436/30 March 2015 (MINA) – At least 21 Palestinians were arrested by the Israeli army and police in the West Bank and Occupied Jerusalem on early Monday morning (30/3).

The Israeli Channel 7 quoted the army as claiming responsibility for the apprehension of 21 Palestinian citizens on allegations of involvement in anti-occupation activities, Palestinian Information Center (PIC) quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) reportedly abducted 11 Palestinians form Ramallah’s town of Abwein and another citizen from Burin village, south of Nablus city.

A similar assault in Nablus’s town of Qaryout resulted in the abduction of the Palestinian ex-prisoner Nidhal al-Bawm after a heavily-armed IOF patrol cordoned off his family home and blew up its entrance gates.

Eye-witnesses said the IOF soldiers wreaked havoc on the house and assaulted its inhabitants, stirring up a state of panic among children and women.

The IOF soldiers forced the captive out of his family home, blindfolded and handcuffed, and dragged him to an unidentified destination.

Two Palestinian youngsters, in their twenties, were also captured in al-Khalil, sources based in the city further reported.

A PIC correspondent quoted Jenin locals as stating that the IOF troops stormed al-Kharouba neighborhood via six army jeeps and kidnapped the 21-year-old Ashraf Hilal Shata moments after they scoured his family home and ravaged it.

The campaign culminated in the abduction of six Palestinian civilians from Jerusalem’s Old city and Silwan neighborhood during a series of home break-ins launched by the IOF.

Such an arbitrary mass-arrest campaign comes to mar the celebrations of the 39th anniversary of the Land Day marked on March 30 every year.

Earlier on Sunday, the Israeli occupation authorities released the Gazan detainee Sami al-Hafi, 35, after he had served a seven-year prison-term.

At least 7,000 Palestinians, including 450 Gazans, are incarcerated in the Israeli occupation jails, where they have reportedly been subjected to dire detention circumstances and ongoing psycho-physical torture. (T/P006/R03)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)