Israeli forces detain 6 Palestinians, including 1 minor in West Bank raids

Israeli forces detained at least six Palestinians, including at least one minor, in predawn military raids Sunday across the occupied West Bank, according to local Palestinian sources and the Israeli army.

 

Local activist in the southern occupied West Bank of town of Beit Ummar Muhammad Awad said that Israeli forces detained two teenagers from their homes and took them in a military jeep to Israel's Gush Etzion detention center north of Beit Ummar.

Awad identified the detainees as 18-year-old Faris Ibrahim Faris al-Duda and a former prisoner, 17-year-old Tariq Nasser Hilmi Abu Ayyash.

An Israeli army spokesperson confirmed two detentions were carried out in Beit Ummar and informed Ma'an that four other Palestinians were also detained in overnight raids conducted in the northern occupied West Bank district of Tulkarem.

She said two Palestinians, including one alleged "Hamas operative," were detained in Tulkarem refugee camp, one Palestinian was detained in the town of Dhinnaba, and another elsewhere in the Tulkarem district.

Israeli raids in Palestinian towns, villages, and refugee camps are a daily occurrence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, with a weekly average of 95 search and detention raids carried out over the course 2016, according to UN documentation.

According to prisoners’ rights group Addameer, there were 6,200 Palestinians in Israeli prisons as of May, including 300 minors.