ISRAELI forces detained early on Tuesday 10 more Palestinians, including four minors, from a number of West Bank districts, said Palestine Prisoners’ Society.
Forces detained four Palestinians from the central West Bank district of Ramallah, including three minors from Deir Abu Masal village, northwest of Ramallah. The detainees were identified as Cristiano Zahran, 16, Saif Hussein, 17, Hasan Antush, 16, all from Deir Abu Masahal village and Hazem al-Qawasmeh, 28.
To the south of Ramallah, in Jerusalem district, forces detained two Palestinians from Qatanna and al-Eizariya, northwest and southeast of Jerusalem. The detainees were identified as Wesam Hushiya and Hasan Hushiya. Besides, 14-year-old Ahmad Abu Khdeir was detained from the Jerusalem neighbourhood of Shu’fat.
In Hebron, forces detained Shaher Abu Jehisha after storming and ransacking his family house in the southern West Bank district. Meanwhile, forces detained two Palestinians during predawn raids into the northern West Bank districts of Tulkarem and Qalqilia.
The detainees were identified as Hamza Qar’awi, 30, from the Tulkarem refugee camp of Ein Shams and Muhammad Asayreh, 49, from Azzun town, east of Qalqilia. This came as four Palestinians were detained from Jerusalem, Nablus and Bethlehem districts and at least two others were detained following an alleged stabbing attack in Jerusalem.
This brought the total number of Palestinians detained on Tuesday to 16. Israeli forces detained four Palestinians in predawn raids into three West Bank districts, said security sources and witnesses. Israeli forces detained a Palestinian after breaking into and ransacking their family houses in Qatanna village, northwest of Jerusalem. The detainee was identified as Muhammad Shamasna.
Forces also detained Muhammad Abu-Rumi, 17, after storming and ransacking his family house in al-Eizariya town, southeast of Jerusalem. In Bethlehem district, forces detained Imad al-Sheikh and stormed several houses during a predawn raid into Marah Rabah village, south of Bethlehem city.
In the northern West Bank district of Nablus, forces detained Bara’ al-’Amer, an undergraduate student, during a raid into Kafr Qallil, south of the city. Israeli occupation authorities on Tuesday handed a number of Palestinian locals in the village of Susiya to the south of Hebron, notices to demolish their privately-owned residential structures, according to a local official.
Head of Susiya village council, Jehad Nawaj’a, informed WAFA that Israeli soldiers, accompanied by staff from the so-called Israeli civil administration, stormed the village and handed a number of locals notices to demolish their residential structures, including tents and sheds.
The official noted that these Israeli measures aim to force Palestinian locals to leave their land in order to seize it for the benefit of expanding the Israeli settlement of Susiya, built illegally on Palestinian-owned land. According to the Palestine News Network, ‘over 700 Palestinians have been displaced by Israeli demolitions in the West Bank (since the beginning of 2016).’
‘This figure is approaching the total number of displaced for all of 2015, said Lance Bartholomeusz, Director of UNRWA Operations in the West Bank, who said that he was ‘appalled’ by the ‘unjustifiable’ demolitions, which are in violation of international law. As the UN has said repeatedly, these demolitions must stop,’ said UNRWA.
Israeli soldiers on Tuesday demolished a Palestinian-owned home under construction in the village of al-Walaja to the west of Bethlehem, under the pretext of lacking an Israeli-issued permit. Security sources told WAFA Israeli forces, accompanied by bulldozers, demolished a 250-square-metres home belonging to local Hasan Abu al-Teen.
An official at al-Walaja village council stated that a large Israeli military force stormed the said area and imposed a military cordon around it, before proceeding to demolish the house. The owner, al-Teen, was handed a stop construction notice for the house almost a week ago.
The village is located in Area C of the West Bank, under complete Israeli military control. Israel rarely issues construction permits to Palestinians in area C, forcing many to embark on construction without obtaining a permit. Area C covers 60% of the West Bank, which was temporarily divided into three parts – A, B and C – under the 1995 Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, signed by Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO).
Today nearly 300,000 Palestinians live in Area C, while nearly 360,000 Jewish settlers live in 135 settlements and 100 settlement outposts, which are illegal under international law. According to a report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), between 1988 and 2014, Israel’s Civil Administration, the governing body that operates in the West Bank, issued 14,000 demolition orders, of which more than 11,000 are still outstanding and could result in the demolition of up to 13,000 structures owned by Palestinians in Area C, including houses, sheds and animal shelters.
The report found the planning and zoning regime applied by the Israeli authorities, including the way land is allocated, ‘made it virtually impossible for Palestinians to obtain building permits in most of Area C’. A number of Palestinian students and staff from Hebron’s Health Work Committees’ Emergency Centre on Tuesday suffocated by tear gas fired by Israeli forces directly toward students and inside the centre.
A WAFA correspondent said Israeli armed soldiers manning Abu al-Rish Israeli military checkpoint in the southern area of Hebron city fired tear gas canisters inside the emergency centre as well as toward students present in the area, causing many to suffocate. They were all treated at the scene.
The centre has been repeatedly targeted by Israeli forces stationed in the area; it was raided and attacked with tear gas and waste water on many occasions. The centre is considered the sole health care provider for about 60 thousand Palestinian locals in the area.
In a previous condemnation statement issued by the Health Work Committee (HWC), the committee ‘denounced the systematic targeting of its centre in Hebron by the Israeli Occupation Forces and confirmed its commitment to providing around the clock services to citizens there and that the occupation measures and harassments will not stop the organisation’s humanitarian health services to citizens.’
HWC urged the international human rights and health organisations to intervene urgently and rapidly to stop the assaults on the centre and other health institutions, and stop the targeting of doctors and medical personnel by the occupation.
It also calls for the application of international conventions and treaties to ensure that the health institutions to work in all conditions without harassment. HWC have previously called for the urgent need of protecting the health centres and health staff from the Israeli occupation’s attacks, which are considered war crimes that require those who are responsible for it to be held accountable.
Israeli settlers on Tuesday stole three sheep belonging to a Palestinian shepherd near the village of Aqraba, south of Nablus in the West Bank, according to local sources. Witnesses said that a group of Israeli settlers broke into the area and stole three sheep belonging to a local Palestinian shepherd, before they fled the scene.
B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights organisation, says that ‘Israeli civilians have perpetrated various forms of violence against Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, damaging their lands, their persons and their property.’ It explained: ‘In recent years, settlers have carried out violent acts under the slogan “price tag.” These are acts of violence aimed at the Palestinian population and Israeli security forces.’
B’Tselem has documented many such acts including the blocking of roads, throwing stones at cars and houses, making incursions into Palestinian villages and land, torching fields, uprooting trees, and other damage to property.
