Paramedic Among 22 Palestinians Detained from West Bank
Ramallah, MINA – Israeli forces predawn Wednesday detained 22 Palestinians, including a paramedic, from various parts of the occupied West Bank, according to local and security sources, the Palestinian News Agency (Wafa) reported.
They said that Israeli forces showed up at a house in al-Mughayyir village, east of Ramallah, conducted a thorough search, and rounded up a paramedic.
Meanwhile, the gun-toting soldiers barged their way into Biddu town, northwest of Jerusalem, detained three others and ransacked the houses of their families, turning them upside down.
In the southern West Bank, the sources confirmed a raid in at-Tabaqa and Abu al ‘Asja villages, southwest of Hebron, resulting in the detention of four others.
The soldiers conducted a similar raid in Dura city, south of Hebron, where they rounded up three others and searched their houses, turning them topsy-turvy.
Soldiers manning a checkpoint in Sa‘ir town, northeast of the city, handcuffed and detained another.
In Nablus district, a convoy of army vehicles stormed Zawata town, west of the city, where the soldiers detained another.
They also detained three others; one from Rafidiya, a neighborhood in the western part of Nablus, another from Rujeib town, southeast of the city, and another from Beita town, south of the city.
In the northern West Bank, the soldiers forcibly entered a house in Tulkarm city and re-arrested a former prisoner.
Still in Tulkarm district, the soldiers stormed a house in Nur Shams refugee camp, east of the city, woke up all the residents, turned the house topsy-turvy, and detained another.
Elsewhere in the northern West Bank, Israeli troops surrounded a house in Qalqiliya city, conducted a thorough search, and detained another.
They also rounded up another after breaking into and searching his family house in Kafr Ra‘i town, southwest of Jenin.
Soldiers manning a checkpoint at the entrance of Tura village, south of Jenin, stopped and detained two others.
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 three 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 4,760 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli prisons and detention centers, including 160 children and 33 female prisoners.
This number includes approximately 820 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. (T/RE1)
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
