Israeli forces today detained three Palestinians and briefly held several internationals in Alzoyedeen community, east of Yatta city in the southern West Bank district of Hebron, according to WAFA correspondent. They said that the gun-toting Israeli soldiers rounded up three shepherds as they were grazing their cattle and briefly held several solidarity activists in the southern West Bank community. The activists accompanied the shepherds in an attempt to protect them against the attacks of Israeli settlers, who have continued their terror and rampage against Palestinians in the community as a means to expel them and seize their land to make room for colonial settlement construction. Meanwhile, a group of settlers grazed their cattle on Palestinian farmers’ crops in Shi’b al-Butum, one of the 19 hamlets making up the Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, sabotaging them. In the early morning hours of today, Israeli forces detained 15 Palestinians, including a 67-year-old former lawmaker, in multiple raids across the occupied West Bank. 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 4,900 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli prisons and detention centers, including 160 children and 30 female prisoners. This number includes 1,016 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 (WAFA)