Israeli forces detained at least 27 Palestinians at dawn Wednesday, including several teenagers and a young woman, in large-scale detention raids carried out across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem during, Sources based in Tulkarem province said the IOF rolled into the city’s eastern suburbs at 2 a.m. and detained three Palestinians. according to Palestinian and Israeli sources.
The Israeli forces reportedly cracked down on Palestinian protesters and wreaked havoc on civilian homes at predawn time. The soldiers further stormed Nablus city and rummaged into Palestinian homes. Clashes burst out between dozens of Palestinian protesters and the occupation troops.
Israeli forces attacked the protesters with randomly-shot waves of teargas canisters and prevented Muslim worshipers from heading to the local mosque to perform their dawn prayers. The IOF broke into Nablus’s eastern town of Deir al-Hatab and kidnapped a Palestinian youth from his own family home.
In the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of al-Isawiya, lawyer Muhammad Mahmoud from the prisoner’s rights group Addameer reported that four teenage boys were detained, identifying them as Muhammad Abu Uweis, Tamir Mleihat, Nadir Mazin Muheisin, and Abd al-Fattah Abu Saymah.
Amjad Abu Asab, chairman of a local committee for prisoners’ families in Jerusalem, said that Israeli forces also detained a young woman identified as Wiam Bassam after raiding her home in Sur Bahir neighborhood in the southern part of East Jerusalem.
In the neighborhood of Abu Dis east of Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces detained a young man identified by locals as Abed Jamal Rabee.
Towards the south, in the West Bank district of Hebron, Israeli forces stormed the village of Khursa south of Hebron city, detaining 27-year-old Mahmoud Khalil Abu Awad.
Palestinian security sources said Israeli forces also raided several neighborhoods in Hebron City, in the northwest town of Surif, and in Yatta to the south which has remained under an Israeli-imposed closure for two consecutive weeks.
Israeli forces detained an additional man in Azzun after Israeli forces found a hunting rifle with a machine that manufactures steel balls for bullets in his home, according to an Israeli army statement quoted by Hebrew language news sites.
An Israeli army spokesperson said four additional Palestinians were detained in the northern West Bank district of Tulkarem, with an Israeli army statement reporting that three were detained in the eastern village of Anabta and one from Tulkarem refugee camp.
Another unidentified Palestinian was detained in Nablus City in the north of the West Bank, with an additional seven being detained in the central district of Ramallah, according to an Israeli army spokesperson.
An Israeli army statement confirmed that one Palestinian was detained in the village of Nilin west of Ramallah, two from the town of al-Bireh adjacent to Ramallah, three from Beitunia southwest of Ramallah — one of whom was detained for being an alleged Hamas operative — and one in the village of Beit Surik southwest of Ramallah.
Palestinian sources did not provide additional details to the detention reports in Tulkarem, Nablus, and Ramallah.
According to Palestinian prisoners’ rights organization Addameer, 7,000 Palestinians are currently held in Israeli prisons. The group estimates that 40 percent of Palestinian men and boys have been detained by Israel at some point in their lives.
The Israeli forces have carried out a weekly average of 89 search and detention raids on Palestinian communities since the start of 2016, according to UN documentation.
