The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates announced, on Sunday, its intention to report the ongoing Israeli crackdown on the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of al-‘Isawiya to the International Criminal Court (ICC), the Palestinian News and Info Agency reported.
In a statement, the Ministry said “it is viewing with grave concern the Israeli escalation in the continuous detention campaigns of Palestinian citizens in the occupied Palestinian territory, to the point that hardly a day passes by without the arrest of dozens of Palestinians, the last of which was the arrest of more than 17 citizens in different areas of the occupied West Bank, with a main focus on occupied East Jerusalem and the neighborhood of al-‘Isawiya in particular.”
“Additionally, Israeli forces imposed a night house arrest on a number of youths in Jerusalem for periods ranging from three to four months, in complete contradiction with international law and human rights principles,” the statement added.
The Ministry warned against the consequences of “dealing with mass and arbitrary arrests as things that have become a daily routine as they are repeated every day, or dealing with them as statistics only, which hides the extent of the great suffering of Palestinian families due to the nightly invasions of Palestinian towns. These incursions are frequently accompanied by the firing of bullets, gas and sound bombs, and with violent invasions into the homes of defenseless civilians.”
Edited for IMEMC: Ali Salam
