Israeli forces kidnapped at least eight Palestinians across the occupied West Bank overnight Saturday.In Bethlehem’s Duheisha refugee camp, Israeli forces was reported to have abducted the wife of Palestinian detainee Ahmad al-Mughrabi. Israeli forces reportedly detained the woman after ransacking her house during raids in the camp.
An Israeli army spokesperson said, according to Ma’an, that a ‘Hamas operative’ had been detained in Duheisha, but did not identify the detainee in question.
Israeli forces also summoned a number of residents — including recently released prisoners Adnan al-Afandi, Nidal Abu Aker, and Ghassan Zawahra — to meet with Israeli intelligence for questioning.
Locals said clashes broke out as Israeli forces initially entered the camp to begin the raids, with Israeli forces shooting tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets at residents in the camp, who responded by hurling stones and empty bottles at Israeli forces.
Israeli forces ransacked several houses during the overnight operation.
In the southern occupied West Bank district of Hebron, Israeli forces detained at least seven Palestinians during overnight raids.
Local sources also said that Israeli forces raided several houses in the Talat Abu Hadid neighborhood of southern Hebron City and detained four people in the area after shots were fired near the Ibrahimi Mosque.
An Israeli army spokesperson said, on Saturday, that shots had been heard in the area, but that no injuries were reported.
The detainees were identified as Younis Abd al-Rahman al-Kurdi, Joudi Abd al-Rahim Sarbal, Muhammad Said Abu Rmouz and Wisam Ramadan Abu Rmouz.
In Sair village, northeast of Hebron city, locals said Israeli forces took with them two Palestinians, during raids in the village.
One of the detainees was identified as Muhammad Asad al-Froukh,17, who was shot and injured in the back by Israeli forces two months previously.
The other detainee was identified as Bilal Idrees Jaradat.
An Israeli army spokesperson could only confirm one detention in Hebron city, and one more in Sair village, but added that another Palestinian was detained in Beit Awwa village, west of Hebron.
Israeli forces regularly carry out detention raids across the occupied Palestinian territory, with the UN documenting at least 347 such raids in the last two weeks of December 2015 alone.
Israeli civilian security guards from the illegal Israeli settlement of Efrat, in the southern occupied West Bank district of Bethlehem, also kidnapped a Palestinian shepherd on Sunday morning, according to local reports.
The shepherd was identified as Salim Ahmad Ziyada, 20, from the southern Bethlehem village of Wadi Rahhal.
He was leading a herd of sheep near the settlement’s fence on a hilly area on the outskirts of the Palestinian village of Artas with his cousin when he was taken.
Ziyada’s cousin, identified as Dirar, 18, said that two Efrat security guards arrived in a vehicle, handcuffed Ziyada and took him to an unknown location.
There are more than 500,000 Israelis living in settlements across occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank. The settlements are illegal under international law.
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