ISRAEL DETAINED 550 PALESTINIANS FROM HEBRON IN 6 MONTHS

Hebron, 16 Ramadhan 1436/3 Juli 2015 (MINA) – Israeli forces have detained 550 Palestinians from the Hebron district of the occupied West Bank since the start of 2015, the Palestinian Palestinian Prisoners’ Society’s Hebron branch reported Thursday.

The group of detainees included seven women and 105 teenagers, head of the Hebron branch Amjad Najjar told Ma’an, adding that 225 of the detainees were sentenced without trial through Israel’s frequent use of administrative detention.

Among the detainees, according to Najjar, were 78 patients “who faced a real life threat as a result of detention” due to not receiving “any medical treatment at all” in Israeli custody, Ma’an News Agency reports as quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA).

Najjar highlighted regular humiliation of Palestinian detainees by Israeli forces, who treat the detainees in a “savage and inhuman way during detention.”

The PPS report comes as rights groups claim that Israel indiscriminately detains Palestinians living throughout the West Bank without sufficient evidence for detention.

Many of those detained in the Hebron district since the start of 2015 were from the town of Beit Ummar, where over 60 residents were detained between January and March, nearly half of whom were minors.

When asked last month about the reason for the detention of a 15-year-old resident of the town, an Israeli army spokesperson told Ma’an: “The reason is like every arrest, either illegal activity or violence against civilians, or involvement in terrorism.”

The Hebron district was targeted heavily by Israeli forces during an arrest campaign last summer known as “Operation Brother’s Keeper,” which was allegedly carried out in search of three missing teenage settlers last summer and left hundreds of Palestinians detained in Israeli jails, including several Hamas-affiliated members of the Palestinian Legislative Council. (T/P010/R04)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)