PA carries out more political detentions in occupied West Bank

The Palestinian Authority has escalated its political detention policy targeting university students and former prisoners, the Palestine Information Centre reported on Wednesday. The PA, said the Centre, holds dozens of Palestinians in prison just for taking part in anti-Israeli occupation activities.

Former prisoners Udai Shurbati and Alaa Bushkar, for example, are being held for the fourth and seventh day respectively. The hunt for former prisoner Ahmad Hrish continues for the eighth day.

At dawn on Wednesday, as Palestinians woke up to news of the devastation in Al-Aqsa Mosque caused by Israeli security forces, PA officials took Ayman Elewi to an unknown destination and summoned former prisoners Mohammad Ayyash and Islam Al-Bo for investigation.

Ahmad Lakhdour from Jerusalem and Khalil Sawalha have been held in a PA prison for ten days now, while Omar Bani Odeh has been held for 18 days, for seven of which he has been on hunger strike.

The PA has been holding Naim Dababat in prison for 18 days and Musa Atallah for 105 days. No reason for their detention has been provided for either of them.

Moreover, an officer in the Palestinian National Security service, Imad Odeh, has started a hunger strike in protest against his detention for shooting at an Israeli settler who attacked him. He has been in prison for 181 days despite several release orders being issued by PA courts.

Such orders seem to be routinely ignored by the PA security agencies. They have been holding Musab Shtayyeh in prison for 199 days even though release orders have been issued by the courts a number of times.

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