ISRAEL DETAIN 350 PALESTINIANS IN JANUARY 2013

Gaza, 21 Rabiul Awal 1434/2 February 2013 (MINA) – Israeli occupation forces detained 350 Palestinians from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip during January 2013, AHRAR Centre for Prisoners Studies and Human Rights has reported.

According to Fou’ad al-Khaffash, manager of AHRAR, only 15 detainees came from the Gaza Strip; the majority of whom are fishermen, while 92 were from Jerusalem with the remaining number distributed among the other West Banks cities.

According to AHRAR’s monthly report received by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA) Saturday, 82 detainees are from Hebron, 44 from Jenin, 36 from Bethlehem, 35 from Nablus, 15 from Ramallah, 14 from Tobas, 6 from Qalqilia and Tulkarm and 5 from Salfeet.

The report stated that eight prisoners were detained at Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank and one at the Eretz Crossing between Gaza and occupied Palestine. The individual detained at the Eretz Crossing was 34 year old Rafiq Abu Harbid who was in the West Bank seeking treatment.

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According to the report, Hassan Torabi, 22, who has been suffering from cancer for 10 years, was also detained at one of the crossings in the West Banks while on his way to Jordan to seek treatment.

Al-Khaffash said that this was not a complete number of the arrests as sometimes citizens who stay only a few days in Israeli jails are not officially reported.

This number does not include the activists who were detained after the army attacked and removed the Bab Al-Shams village, that was installed by Palestinian and international activists on Palestinian lands Israel illegally confiscated for settlement construction activities in East Jerusalem.

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He also called for mass media and human rights organisations to shed light on Israeli detention of Palestinian citizens and the continuous “humiliation” of their rights. He said that they are “exposed to brutal procedures while they are being kidnapped from their families.”

Describing the misery of the prisoners inside the Israeli jails, the former prisoner, Al-Khaffash, said: “When the Israelis do not find proof against a prisoner, they put him under administrative detention for an unlimited number of times.”

Some of the kidnapped Palestinians are also former political prisoners who previously spent several years in Israeli prisons.

7 Killed

Meanwhile , A report prepared and published by the International Solidarity Foundation for Human Rights revealed that Israeli soldiers shot and killed seven Palestinians, last month – January 2013.

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The foundation said that four Palestinians – two children, a young woman and a young man, were shot and killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank, and three more Palestinians, including one child, were killed in Gaza.

Monthly Detention Report – 1 January 2013

Type of Prisoner	Number of Prisoners
Total number of political prisoners	4,743
Administrative detainees	178 (5 PLC members)
Female prisoners	10
Child prisoners	193 (23 under the age of 16)
Palestinian Legislative Council members	12
East Jerusalem prisoners	167
1948 Territories prisoners	191
Gaza prisoners	437
Prisoners serving life sentences	529
Prisoners serving a sentence above 20 years	456
Prisoners having served for more than 25 years	23
Prisoners having served for more than 20 years	72
Prisoners detained before Oslo Agreements	11

(T/P02/E1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)