Israeli forces Thursday detained three men from Hebron and Jenin districts, as a part of the Israeli army’s systematic policy of daily arrests, local and security sources told WAFA correspondence. Additionally, 5 women were taken into police custody from Al Aqsa Mosque, in occupied East Jerusalem.Israeli soldiers detained a young man from Jenin, Thursday at dawn, while holding a father and his sons and destroying their homes.
Security sources and homes’ owners told WAFA that Israeli soldiers detained 22-year-old Lutfi Abu as-Samn after raiding his home and vandalizing it. Witnesses added that Fakhri Huweil’s home was raided and vandalized, its surroundings dug out.
Soldiers also destroyed Fakhri’s cameras and damaged his studio by unleashing police dogs.
The homes of two brothers, Naser and Ja’far Abu as-Samn, were also raided and vandalized. Their parents told WAFA that soldiers raided their homes at dawn, interrogated their families and later confiscated their property under the pretext that the two are wanted. The two brothers were ordered to turn themselves over at Salem military camp, west of Jenin.
Israeli soldiers also raided the homes of Muhamad Jabarin, inspecting it and tampering with its contents.
Meanwhile, in Hebron, Israeli soldiers abducted a Palestinian from Beit Ummar. Mohammad Awad, spokesperson for the Anti-Settlement Committee, told WAFA that Israeli forces raided al-Madabi’ area, west of Beit Ummar, and inspected locals’ homes, detained freed prisoner Saqir Abu Mariah, 40, and transferred him to Etzion military camp.
Also on Thursday, Israeli police detained 5 women who were praying at Al Aqsa Mosque, for attempting to stop yet another provocative tour carried out by extremist Jews.
The women are reportedly from different areas of East Jerusalem, such as Jabal al-Mukabir, Shufat refugee camp and Sour Baher. One of the women is 16 years old, while the other two are 19.
Some of the detained women were identified as: Malak Atoun, her cousin and Ikhlas Ra’oud.
WAFA correspondence reports that all of the women were led to Qashla detention center in Bab el-Khalil gate in the old city of Jerusalem.
Israeli police spokeswoman Luba Samri justified the detention, saying they were ‘chanting religious slogans at the Israelis who were in the Mosque’s yards and tried to end the visit.”
She said, in a press release sent out to news agencies, that the five women are undergoing interrogation at the moment.
The detention came amid a provocative tour during which extremist settlers broke into the from al-Maghariba gate, under heavy Israeli protection.
The provocative tours are usually called for by a number of Jewish groups such as Students for the Temple, Women for the Temple, Hliba, and Union Temple. The groups perform Talmudic prayers and rituals, usually insulting worshipers and provoking them.
Tensions in Al Aqsa Mosque Compound have been on the rise, WAFA reports, as religious settlers continue these tours, inflaming Palestinian worshipers, especially following the deadly incidents which have occured over the past few months in Jerusalem and its neighborhoods, in addition to the ongoing violations committed by Israeli settlers in the West Bank.
See also: Extremists Continue to Invade Al Aqsa, Netanyahu to Increase Jerusalem ‘Security Forces’
Israeli settlers, Thursday, targeted a Palestinian home in the South Hebron Hills village of Ad-Deirat, while Israeli forces demolished a tent in the village of Al-Mufaqarah, according to an Operation Dove press release.
Witnesses said that two settlers spraypainted, near the front door of a Palestinian house in the village of Ad-Deirat, a sentence in which only the word “revenge” is recognizable. The attack happened at around 3AM.
The settlers broke a window and threw a Molotov cocktail inside the house, damaging its furniture and the television. No injuries were reported among the home’s residents, who were sleeping in another room.
The same day, Israeli forces demolished a tent and a cement base for a tent, both belonging to a Palestinian family in the village of Al-Mufaqarah. The tent was used to house sheep and to store wood clogs used by the family for heat during winter.
According to Operation Dove, which monitors the suffering of Palestinians in At-Tuwani and South Hebron Hills since 2004, locals have been under settler attack since the 1970s.
The settlers, occupying Palestinian-owned lands, deprive Palestinians of their main livelihood, commit acts of violence, prevent Palestinians from having a normal life and restrict their freedom of movement, thus forcing them to leave the area.
Ad-Deirat and al-Mufaqarah villages are located in Area C, under Israeli military and administrative control, meaning that all construction activities must be approved by the Israeli administration.
Israel denies Palestinians the right to build on 70% of Area C, which is about 44% of all the occupied West Bank. Within the remaining 30% a series of restrictions are usually applied in order to prevent Palestinians from obtaining building permits, according to United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA.
Furthermore, on Thursday, Israeli authorities demolished residential Bedouin-oriented structures in Kherbet Um al-Jamal, a small village near Tubas in the central Jordan Valley, according to local sources.
Head of al-Maleh village council, Aref Daraghmeh, said that Israeli soldiers and bulldozers arrived in the area and demolished around 25 residential structures, most made of tinplates, and animal bars.
Daraghmeh said the demolition left around five Palestinian families homeless.
Israeli army and police have repeatedly vandalized Palestinian residencies in the Jordan valley under the pretext of construction without permission.
The Jordan Valley is also part of Area C of the West Bank, under complete Israeli control, where Israel rarely issues construction permits for Palestinians, prompting them to attempt constructing without a permit.
Israel has heavily invested in transferring the Jordan Valley into an entirely Israeli area, primarily in agriculture, aiming to ban territorial contiguity between a future Palestinian state and the rest of the Arab world.
To this end, tens of settlements and agricultural outposts have been established by Israel in the Valley, which makes up about one-third of the total area of the occupied West Bank.
Significantly contributing to the Israeli agriculture, the Jordan Valley has, nonetheless, been a part of the West Bank, occupied since 1967, which the international community does not recognize as an Israeli territory.
To the west of Bethlehem, in the village of Housan, Israeli soldiers ravaged the content of a local store on Thursday, as well, according to witnesses.
Soldiers raided a store used for selling construction materials and paints and plundered some of its content.
The village of Housan has been subject to recurrent army incursions during recent days, including provocative firing of teargas canisters and stun grenades.
