Israeli occupation forces carried out arrest raids throughout the occupied West Bank on 14 and 15 January, detaining dozens of Palestinians including 20 from Beit Ummar village near Hebron.
Mohammed Mahmoud of Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association noted that most of those detained in East Jerusalem were under 18, including Qusay Da’na, Ahmad Abu al-Hummus, Mohammed Jumaa, Ibrahim Dandis, Ibrahim Shamasnah, Muhsin Attoun, Mohammed Bkeirat and Hamza Melhes.
Mahmoud Muna, Murad Bkeirat, Rami Bkeirat and Wahid al-Bakri were arrested from Sur Bahir village in East Jerusalem; two more Palestinians were detained in al-Sawahra al-Sharqiya and Izariyya.
In Beit Ummar, 18 were detained in dawn raids on Wednesday 14 January (list via Ma’an): Mahmoud Yousif Nasri Alqam, 17, Imad Ahmad Abu Hashim, 24, Omar Ahmad Ayyad Awad, 28, Muhammad Ibrahim Abu Mariyya, 19, Ayish Abd al-Nasser Ikhlayyil, 19, his brother Muhammad, 18, Hamza Muhammad Ikhlayyil, 18, Amir Muhammad Abd al-Jawwad Ikhlayyil, 16, Salah Salih al-Allami, 25, Muayyad Walid Tumar, 22, Yahya Adam Ikhlayyil, 25, his brother Muhammad, 22, Yousif Mahmoud Abu Mariyya, 38, Jihad Raed Muqbil, 18, Shadi Ibrahim Bahar, 24, Mahmoud Imad Ikhlayyil, 21, Malik Bassam al-Teet, 16 and Mahmoud Badir Ikhlayyil, 28. Mahmoud Abu Dayyeh, 24, and Khaled Ahmad Ikhleil, 24, were detained in the village on Thursday 15 January.
On Thursday, 8 more young men were detained in Jenin and Nablus, including Alaa el-Deen Rashid Abdel Hafez, Ahmad Said al-Saadi, Qasim Ragheb al-Saadi, Yahya Bassem al-Saadi, Raed Tawalbah and Majd Qasim Ubeid from Jenin refugee camp and Thaer Ali al-Haj from Jinsinya and Yousef Khalil Hijazi from Askar refugee camp.
In total, 40 Palestinians were arrested by Israeli occupation forces in these dawn raids, accompanied by closures of entrances and exits to towns and massive military presences in the streets for hours at a time. In Beit Ummar, occupation soldiers smashed Palestinians’ car windows and attacked local youths while forcibly entering dozens of homes and violently searching them. The occupation soldiers fired tear gas bombs, rubber coated metal bullets and live ammunition; five Palestinians required medical treatment.
Mohammed Awad, of the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements in Beit Ummar, described the attack as the largest military invasion in Beit Ummar since 2004.
