The Ahrar Center for Detainee’s Studies and Human Rights reported that Israeli soldiers kidnapped 1227 Palestinians, including children, women, elderly, intellectuals and legislators, since the beginning of this year, shot and killed 16 more Palestinians.The center said that the number of Palestinians kidnapped so far this year is less than the number of Palestinians kidnapped in the same timeframe least year as the army kidnapped 1340 Palestinians.
The center stated that the Hebron district, in the southern part of the West Bank, witnessed the largest number of arrests as the army kidnapped 310 (%25) Palestinians this year, following by Jerusalem where the army kidnapped 243 (%20) Palestinians.
In the Nablus district, in the northern part of the occupied West Bank, the army kidnapped 160 (%13) Palestinians.
Ahrar reported that the army also kidnapped four elected legislators in the West Bank, and added that the current number of imprisoned legislators and ministers arrived to 16. Soldiers also kidnapped several intellectuals, and political leaders.
Furthermore, soldiers killed 16 Palestinians since the beginning of this year, including 12 who were killed in the West Bank, and four in the Gaza Strip.
One of the slain Palestinians is Arafat Jaradat, from the southern West Bank city of Hebron, who was kidnapped by the army and was tortured to death at an Israeli interrogation facility, while detainee Maisara Abu Hamdiyya, 64, from Hebron, died at an Israeli prison due to an advanced stage of cancer, resulting from the lack of medical treatment in Israeli prisons.
It is worth mentioning that in April, the army killed four Palestinians and kidnapped 259 others; 94 of the kidnapped are from the Hebron district, 42 from Jerusalem, 25 in Jenin, 24 in Bethlehem, and the rest were kidnapped in other areas of occupied Palestine.
