Mass arrest campaigns continue in Jerusalem and West Bank

Reports from the Independent Middle East Media Center (IMEMC): On Wednesday 10 December, at dawn, dozens of Israeli soldiers invaded various neighborhoods in occupied East Jerusalem, and kidnapped twelve Palestinians, including one woman, after breaking into their homes and searching them.

Local sources said the soldiers invaded and ransacked the home of ‘Abeer Zayyad, in the ath-Thoury neighborhood, in Silwan town, and kidnapped her. Zayyad is a political leader of the Fateh movement.

Soldiers also kidnapped Hamza Shweiki and Mohammad Zghayyar, from the ath-Thoury neighborhood.

In addition, soldiers invaded Ras al-‘Amoud area in Silwan, and kidnapped Mohammad ‘Aziz ‘Oweis, Majd Abdullah ‘Oweis, Mohammad Hussein ‘Oweis, Ayyoub Abu ‘Assab, Luay Za’atra, Hussein Darwish, Ahmad Gharib and Mo’tasem Gheith.

Another Palestinian has also been kidnapped near the Qalandia checkpoint.

Nine more Palestinians were arrested in Hebron and Bethlehem early on Wednesday, 10 December – in Beit ‘Awwa near Hebron, Motassem Abu Threi, Yasser Abdul Rahman Masalma, Mohammed Qassem Masalma, Saed Ibrahim Abu al-Jammal, Bakr Abdul-Karim Masalma and Ra’fat Nimir Masalma.

In Beit Fajjar south of Bethlehem, Israeli occupation forces took Nader Ribhi Taqatqa, 30, and in Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem, they arrested Abdullah Ahmad Saqr, 25 and Hussein Abed Rabbo, 26.

All kidnapped Palestinians have been moved to a number of interrogation centers in occupied Jerusalem and the West Bank.

On Tuesday, 9 December, 7 Palestinians were arrested by Israeli occupation forces: 3 in Ethna west of Hebron, Moath Abu Jheisha, Mojahed Abu Jheisha, and Mahmoud Abu Jheisha; 1 Fateh leader in Jerusalem, Ahmad al-Ghoul; another unidentified Palestinian was arrested at Qalandiya checkpoint in occupied Jerusalem.

In Tequa’, east of Bethlehem, two young Palestinians were arrested near an illegal settlement in the area and are under interrogation now.

On Monday, 8 December, Ma’an News reported that Israeli occupation forces arrested 19 Palestinians in dawn raids. Raed Salah al-Muhtasib, 26, Muhammad Mousa Abu Hussein, Tariq Muhammad Abu Hussein, 25, Hamza Abd al-Rahman Abu Hussein, 24, Ibrahim al-Khatib, 23, Anas Abu Rayyan, 24, Tariq Issa al-Juba, 27, and Bilal Abdul-Rahman Abu Hussein, 25 were detained in Hebron.

As’ad Khaled Abu al-Hasan, 20; Yazan Khaled Shtayyeh, 21; Mojahed Ghazi Khalil, 22; and Asadallah Qett, 23 were detained in Nablus while Uday Abu al-Rub, 21, and Shadi Zakarna, 27, were arrested in Jenin.

Yousuf al-Bayyad and Ahmad Fahim were detained from al-Jalazun refugee camp near Ramallah while Sheikh Yousef Jabir and Sa’ad Darwish, the brother of Saji Darwish, who was shot and killed by the Israeli occupation forces on 10 March 2014, were arrested in the nearby village of Betin.

Another Palestinian man, Bilal Burqan, was detained in occupied Jerusalem.

These arrest campaigns have continued on a daily basis, often carried out through dawn raids. Thousands of Palestinians have been arrested since June 2014, 2,000 of those from June to July alone. There are currently over 6200 Palestinians in Israeli prisons.