Israel arrests more than 40 Palestinians including ex-prisoners

Israeli occupation forces carried out a large-scale arrest campaign across the occupied West Bank, detaining at least 43 Palestinians, including a girl and one woman, reported Wafa news agency.

According to Palestinian security sources, more than half are former prisoners.

Amani Sarahneh, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS), told Anadolu Agency that the raids targeted Hebron province, where 50 citizens including two females, identified as Amena Abdel-Ghani Abu Turki and Seham Al-Battat, were taken into custody.

She emphasised that it was the largest detention campaign in the area this year.

“The escalation constitutes a crime, due to the continuing spread of the Covid-19 pandemic among prisoners, which endangers their lives,” the organisation said.

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Soldiers detained 22 Palestinians in the town of Dura, including nine former prisoners.

The others were from the city of Hebron, Yatta, Al-Dahriyeh, Bani Naim, Arroub refugee camp, Beit Ummar, Sair and Sourif, reported Wafa, during which Israel soldiers broke into homes and ransacked them.

Hamas leader Hassan Yousef said more than 40 group members were arrested during the raids, which were part of “continuous attempts by the occupation to dissuade the movement from its role in the resistance against the occupation.”

The Israeli army carries out frequent arrest campaigns across the West Bank – including in occupied East Jerusalem – on the pretext of searching for “wanted” Palestinians.

According to PPS, Israeli occupation forces arrested more than 3,000 Palestinians from the start of 2020 until the end of August.

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