Israeli forces arrest over dozen Palestinians in occupied West Bank

Israeli forces have arrested at least 13 Palestinians during overnight raids across the occupied West Bank.

Palestine’s official Wafa news agency, citing security and local sources, reported on Thursday that Israeli forces had rounded up the Palestinians mainly in Ramallah and nearby towns, including al-Bireh, overnight on Wednesday.

They also detained a Palestinian in Nablus City and some others in the Jalazone refugee camp north of Ramallah and in the al-Am’ari refugee camp, south of al-Bireh City, where another Palestinian was arrested.

Israeli forces also searched and vandalized the family house of several of the Palestinians before detaining them.

According to Wafa, the raids, which occur mostly in areas under the full control of the Palestinian Authority, are conducted arbitrarily and with no search warrant.

The raids came days after two Palestinian gunmen killed two Israeli forces and wounded four others in a shooting attack in the northern Israeli city of Hadera before being shot dead.

In a report on Monday, the Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) said 19,000 Palestinian minors, including children younger than 10 years of age, had been arrested since the outbreak of the Second Intifada in September 2000.

There are reportedly more than 7,000 Palestinians held at Israeli jails. Hundreds of the inmates, including women and minors, have been apparently incarcerated under the practice of the so-called administrative detention. Some prisoners have been held in administrative detention for up to 11 years.