Israeli police last, night abducted seven Palestinian minors while they were leaving the al-Aqsa Mosque compound following Taraweeh (Ramadan night prayers), according to local sources.The children were identified as Noor-Eddin Abu Hadwan, 15, Omar al-Tawil, 15, Morad Alkam, 14, Mohammad Jaber, 13, Omar Yasin, 14, Mohammad Tayeh, 16, and Saleh Ishti, 15, according to WAFA Palestinian News & Info Agency.
A total of 1,545 Palestinians, including minors, women and elderly were detained since the beginning of 2015, reported Abdel Nasser Ferwana, the director of the Bureau of Statistics in the commission of detainees’ affairs.
The rate of detentions has reached 9.6% between January and April, which exceeded the rate documented for the same period in 2014, said Ferwana.
About 258 Palestinians under the age of 18 are among the detainees in Israeli jails, in addition to 77 women, the statement reported.
Also on Wednesday, Israeli authorities notified a local resident of Kisan, a village to the east of Bethlehem, about their intent to demolish agricultural structures that he owns, according to local sources.
Head of the village council of Kisan, Hussein Ghazal, said an Israeli army force pasted a notification paper at the farmland of Ali Abu Dayyeh, a local farmer, informing him that a number of agricultural facilities and retaining walls of his own in the area will be demolished.
Such demolitions are frequently carried out by the Israeli army and the so-called Israeli Civil Administration in Area C of the West Bank, under full Israeli control, on unpermitted construction pretences.
Issuance of construction permits for Palestinians living in Area C is strictly limited, forcing Palestinians residing in such areas to construct without obtaining the necessary permits.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), between December 30, 2014 and January 12, 2015, the Israeli authorities demolished 27 Palestinian structures in Area C of the West Bank and five in East Jerusalem, in addition to two self demolition incidents, due to lack of Israeli-issued building permits.
