The State of Israel raided on Monday the Jerusalem headquarters of the International Red Cross and detained two Palestinian members of parliament.Khaled Abu Arfa and Mohammed Totah, both members of the political wing of the Hamas movement and elected MPs, were detained from the IRC headquarters, having spent over 18 months seeking refuge in the building following Israel’s revocation of their Jerusalem residency.
Mickey Rosenfeld told Reuters that the men had been detained due to their participation in ‘Hamas activities’.
The IRC building is located in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of occupied East Jerusalem, where Palestinian residents have been subjected to eviction from their homes by Israel, allowing settler families to take over the houses in their place.
The arrests follow the detention of other Hamas legislators, Dr. Aziz Dweik, speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, in Ramallah and Khaled Tafesh from his Bethlehem home.
