Palestine

Zionist regime forces detain Palestinian agriculture minister

 

Israeli forces on Sunday arrested Palestinian Agriculture Minister Sufian Sultan, as he was heading to the city of al-Khalil (Hebron) from Ramallah, the center of the occupied West Bank.

The Israeli regime’s forces stopped the minister’s car and forced him out of it at gunpoint while deliberately assaulting him, before proceeding to thoroughly search his vehicle. Forces also seized the car’s alarm system, the ministry of agriculture said in a statement.

The ministry condemned Israel’s move against the minister, noting that such a measure violates the international humanitarian law and is part of Israel’s escalated attacks against the Palestinian people.

Various Palestinian cities and towns in the West Bank, especially Ramallah, al-Bireh, and Jerusalem al-Quds have been scene to clashes between Palestinian people and Zionist military forces.

Tensions have been running high in the occupied region as the Israeli military regularly opens fatal fire on Palestinians, accusing them of seeking to attack its personnel.

Human rights groups have repeatedly slammed the Tel Aviv regime for its shoot-to-kill policy as a large number of the Palestinians killed at the scene of attacks did not pose any serious threat to Israelis.

Israeli troops have on numerous occasions been caught on camera brutally killing Palestinians, with the videos going viral online and sparking condemnations of the regime’s military.

Since the beginning of 2018, Israeli forces have killed at least 310 Palestinians, including 54 children, and arrested over 900 others, according to a Palestinian human rights center.

Tensions have also been running high near the fence separating Gaza Strip from the occupied territories since March 30, the day when Gaza protesters started their “Great March of Return” protests.

Palestinian protesters demand the right to return for those driven out of their homeland.

The clashes in Gaza reached their peak on May 14, the eve of the 70th anniversary of Nakba Day, or the Day of Catastrophe, which coincided this year with Washington’s relocation of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to occupied Jerusalem al-Quds.

More than 220 Palestinians have so far been killed and over 20,000 others wounded in the renewed Gaza clashes, according to the latest figures released by the Gaza Health Ministry.

Gaza has been under the Israeli siege since June 2007, causing a decline in living standards as well as unprecedented unemployment and poverty.

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