Israeli forces detained 13 Palestinians on Thursday during several brutal raids across the West Bank, including in Ramallah and East al-Quds, according to Wafa.
Ramallah, June 9 (RHC)-- Israeli forces detained 13 Palestinians on Thursday during several brutal raids across the West Bank, including in Ramallah and East al-Quds, according to the Wafa news agency.
Israeli forces frequently raid Palestinian houses and ransack them almost daily across the West Bank in search of "wanted" Palestinians, triggering clashes with residents.
These raids, which also take place in areas under the full control of the Palestinian Authority, are carried out without a search warrant. Under Israeli military law, army commanders have full executive, legislative and judicial authority over 3 million Palestinians living in the West Bank. Palestinians have no say in how this authority is exercised.
An Israeli rights group has revealed that the occupying regime is holding more than 600 Palestinian detainees without charge or trial in its detention centers across the occupied territories.
Palestinian rights organizations said on Wednesday that the Israeli military arrested about 690 Palestinians, including 76 minors and 19 women, in May alone.
The joint statement issued by the Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs Commission (official), the Palestinian Prisoner Club, the Addameer Foundation for Prisoner Care and Human Rights, and the Wadi Hilweh Information Center – al-Quds (non-governmental) said that “the Israeli authorities launched a massive arrest campaign during past month, concentrated in the city of [al-Quds].”
The statement added that the city “has witnessed during May the highest rate of arrests, as 401 cases were registered, including 58 minors and 16 women.”
Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners are held under so-called administrative detention, under which Israel keeps the detainees without charge for up to six months, a period that can be extended an infinite number of times.
The detentions take place on orders from a military commander and based on what the Israeli regime describes as ‘secret’ evidence. Some prisoners have been held in administrative detention for up to 11 years.
The statement further criticized the brutal arrests and the use of violence against the detainees and in some cases their families.
