ISRAELI forces detained at least ten Palestinians, including a journalist, in Wednesday night raids across the occupied West Bank, Israeli and Palestinian officials said on Thursday.
The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) reported on Thursday that four Palestinians were detained in the southern West Bank district of Hebron, including journalist and former prisoner Osama Shaheen.
The other Hebron-area detainees were identified by PPS as Muntaser Yousef Abu Ayash, 23, and former prisoners Qasem Abu Hussein, 26, and Nour al-Atrash, 27. An Israeli army spokesperson confirmed that four Palestinians had been detained in the Hebron district, listing three detentions in the city of Hebron and one in the village of al-Bira.
PPS added that Nabaa al-Sefi, 20, was detained in the refugee camp of al-Duheisha in the southern district of Bethlehem. Locals said that clashes erupted in al-Duheisha during the raid, during which one Palestinian was injured.
Al-Duheisha residents added that Israeli soldiers raided the camp with dogs and fired live bullets, rubber-coated steel bullets, and tear gas at Palestinians until dawn on Thursday morning. One Palestinian was injured in the leg by live fire and taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.
Israeli forces upturned al-Sefi’s home during the raid, destroying furniture and demolishing part of the interior walls. Meanwhile in the northern West Bank, PPS reported the detention of two Palestinians, identified as Ihab Fathi, 22, and Abd al-Fatah Daoud, 21, in the Tulkarem district, while Ashraf Muhammad Salama was detained in the Nablus district.
The organisation also stated that former prisoner Mabrouk Jarrar, 35, and Wisam Muhammad Abu Zeid, 18, were detained in the Jenin district. The Israeli army spokesperson said two suspected ‘Hamas operatives’ were detained in Jenin, one of whom was detained in the village of Burqin.
Meanwhile three Palestinian prisoners from the southern occupied West Bank district of Bethlehem continued their hunger strikes against administrative detention, as another Palestinian prisoner suspended his hunger strike on Wednesday after reaching a deal with Israeli authorities.
Sawt al-Asra (Voice of Prisoners) radio station warned in a report that the health of the three hunger strikers was deteriorating sharply. Brothers Mahmoud and Muhammad Balboul began their hunger strikes on July 4 and 7 respectively. The brothers were detained on June 9 and sentenced to administrative detention, shortly before their younger sister Nuran, 16, was released after spending four months in Israeli jail.
Meanwhile, 20-year-old Malik Salah Daoud al-Qadi has been on a hunger strike since July 11, after being detained on May 23. Al-Qadi had previously spent four months in Israeli custody after being detained in December 2015. Al-Qadi is a journalism and media student at the al-Quds University in Abu Dis.
Tareq Barghouthi, a lawyer for the Palestinian Committee of Prisoners’ Affairs, told Sawt-al Asra after visiting Mahmoud Balboul at Israel’s Assaf Harofeh Hospital on Tuesday evening that Balboul’s health condition was very critical, as he has lost 30 kilograms, was having difficulty speaking, and suffered from severe fatigue.
Israeli doctors warned last week that Mahmoud might be paralysed if he was not given vitamins, but he has refused to take supplements and insisted on continuing his strike and only consuming water.
Meanwhile, Palestinian prisoner Ayyad al-Hreimi suspended his hunger strike on Tuesday night after going 48 days without food to protest at his administrative detention, following an agreement reached between his lawyer and Israeli prosecutors to release him in February 2017.
By February 2017, Israel will have renewed his administrative detention three times.
Four days after last being released from serving a four-year prison sentence, Israeli forces detained al-Hreimi again alongside his two brothers and two cousins. Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody began a mass hunger strike movement in support of Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) member Bilal Kayid, who ended his 71-day hunger strike last week.
Kayid was one of the most high-profile hunger strikers since Palestinian journalist Muhammad al-Qiq came near death during a 94-day hunger strike protesting his administrative detention order, before being released in May.
Israel’s policy of administrative detention, which allows Israel to detain someone without trial or charge, is almost exclusively used against Palestinians and has been widely criticised by rights groups which have accused Israel of using the policy to erode Palestinian political and social life by detaining scores of Palestinians without proof of wrongdoing.
According to prisoner rights group Addameer, as of July, 7,000 Palestinians were being held in Israeli prisons, 750 of whom were being held under administrative detention. Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah on Wednesday condemned the ongoing abuse of Palestinian minors held in Israeli jails and their ill-treatment in interrogation rooms, according to a statement issued by his office.
‘This pattern of abuse by Israel is inhumane and very troubling,’ said Hamdallah. ‘It is cruel and unlawful, and sadly leaves a lasting psychological impact on our children.’ Recently, two minor detainees, Mu’men Hamayel and Oday Bader, told the attorneys from the Palestinian Committee of Prisoners’ Affairs that they had been physically abused and severely beaten after their arrest in the West Bank.
Sixteen-year-old Oday Bader from the town of Abu Dis near Jerusalem, said that he was shot four times in the back, arms, and legs. Afterwards, he was beaten by Israeli soldiers and his head was repeatedly rammed into a wall; the beating continued while he was being transported in a military jeep to an Israeli hospital.
Hamayel, also 16, from the town of Kufur Malik said that Israeli soldiers blindfolded him and took him to a nearby settlement where they physically attacked him with their fists and boots before taking him to a hospital. Jamal Dajani, Director of Strategic Communications & Media at the Office of the Prime Minister, said: ‘Israel continuously violates Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which it ratified in 1991.
‘Child defendants have a right to request the presence of a parent during questioning and should not be subjected to interrogation practices that might lead or coerce them to acknowledge guilt.’
In an unprecedented move, the Israeli Knesset recently approved legislation that allows the arrest of children under 14 years old, keeping them detained in Israeli jails until the end of the legal procedures.
More than 300 Palestinian children are currently held in Israeli prisons, according to Addameer. They are often arrested at night, blindfolded and transported to Israeli prisons outside of the West Bank, in violation of article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
In the majority of the cases, the children have no access to a lawyer during the interrogation and their parents are prevented from being present, according to a report by Defence for Children International-Palestine. More than 86% of them endure some form of physical violence following their arrest, including beating, kicking and violent shaking. At the end of the interrogation, the children are forced to sign ‘confessions’ in Hebrew, a language that most of them don’t speak.
