Palestinian sources reported that the Israeli army abducted four Palestinian civilians, including one governmental official, from the southern West Bank city of Hebron and the nearby Surif village on Monday morning.
In Surif village, west of Hebron, soldiers conducted a wide scale search campaign. Eyewitnesses reported that soldiers attacked and searched houses and forced families outside during the searches.
Soldiers left the village after several hours, taking with them three civilians and transferring them to unknown detention camps. Sources in the village identified them as: Isma’el Ihmidat, 22, Muneep Abu Farah, 20, and Mohamed Abu Farah, 21.
In the meantime Doctor Hattem Shuhada, 54, was abducted from his house in Hebron and taken to an unknown location, the online Palestinian daily ‘Palestine Info’ reported. Shuhada is the advisor to the Palestinian Minister of Health in the West Bank, the site added.
Shuhada’s wife stated that Israeli armored vehicles and soldiers surrounded the family home on Monday at dawn and forced all family members, including children, outside by threatening to shoot them. The forces searched and ransacked the house, then abducted Dr. Shuhada and took him to an unknown detention camp.
Since the capture of the Israeli soldier Gil’ad Shalit in Gaza by a Palestinian resistance faction in June 2006, the Israeli army has abducted more than 40 Palestinian law makers and officials, among them four Palestinian ministers.
