The Israeli forces attacked several areas in the West Bank Monday at
dawn and took a number of residents prisoner and injured two.
A mother and her child were injured when troops stationed at one of the military checkpoints inside the old town of the southern West Bank city of Hebron stopped them and attacked them. Rida Al Rigbi, 45, and her son Saleh, 16, sustained fractures and bruises all over their bodies after being attacked by the soldiers; they were moved to the city's hospital for treatment where the injuries were described as medium, medical sources reported.
Also, south of the West Bank, in the city of Bethlehem troops invaded several areas of the city and took one prisoner after searching and ransacking a number of residents' houses.
Mohamed Fanoun, 50, a politburo member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and a member of the Palestinian National Council, was taken prisoner from his house in the Bethlehem city center on Monday at dawn after troops surrounded it and searched it before taking him to an unknown location, eyewitnesses reported.
In the meantime another force invaded Deheisha refugee camp and searched and ransacked several homes there. Residents reported no arrests.
In the northern part of the West Bank, troops took two prisoners from the city of Tulkarem in a morning raid of the city. Troops attacked residents' homes in Nur Shams refugee camp located in the eastern side of Tulkarem, and took Mohamed Masharfa, 24, and Mohamed Abu Al Khaber, 40, to unknown locations. Their families said the soldiers also took computers and some of the family's belongings during the search.
Israeli media sources reported that the Israeli army took prisoner 15 residents during morning invasions to several West Bank cities. According to those sources two were taken in Tulkarem, six in Ramallah city, four in Bethlehem and three in Hebron city.
However, these arrests came shortly after the Israeli diplomatic-security cabinet supposedly decided on Sunday that Israeli forces are no longer allowed to take prisoners from the West Bank without the approval from either the GOC Central Command or the commander of the Israeli forces in the occupied Palestinian territories, Israeli media sources reported.
The Israeli government claimed that this decision is "aimed at reducing tensions in the West Bank that could disrupt the fragile cease-fire in the Gaza Strip."
Regardless of those claims the Israeli daily Haaretz reported on Monday that the Israeli army opposes expanding the ceasefire to the West Bank, claiming that Palestinian resistance factions have no interest of stopping attempts to launch attacks from the West Bank.
