Nearly 300 Jerusalemites held captive since early July

As Israel continues its ongoing sweep of arrests and abductions in the city of Jerusalem, police said in statement on Wednesday that they have arrested 295 Jerusalemites, and submitted indictments against 71 of them, since the beginning of July.

According to the Wadi Hilweh Information Center, the tension in Jerusalem is very high and the Magistrate judge is extending the most recent detentions over the weekend.

Al-Dameer Lawyer Mohammad Mahmoud denounced the continued detainment of prisoners — a number of whom are children — noting that the procedure is routine, as he declared it to be a systematic policy against Jerusalemites under a pretext of “clashes in their residential areas”.

The Center’s report, in fact, indicates that police abducted one Ahmad Hasan A’bed on Tuesday afternoon from the Shu’fat refugee camp, in occupied East Jerusalem, over a round of strong language which broke out between them.

The 53-year old was presented to the Magistrate court the next day and was to be released on bail. Prosecution refused the judge’s decision and appealed to the District court. Ahmad’s case is to be heard again on Thursday.

More than 800,000 Palestinians, including children, have been kidnapped and imprisoned by Israel since the 1967 occupation of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. At least 6,000 Palestinians are currently being held captive in Israeli jails, often under Administrative Detention policy. Such prisoners are held without charge or trial, and under circumstances which are often dire, to the point of prisoners engaging in mass hunger strikes, in protest.