News / Palestine

Israeli forces arrest Hamas-linked lawmaker in occupied West Bank

Tuesday, 17 May 2016 9:26 AM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 17 May 2016 9:26 AM ]

Palestinian Hamas-affiliated lawmaker Abd al-Jaber Fuqaha (C)

Israeli military forces have reportedly arrested a legislator affiliated with Palestinian movement Hamas in the central part of occupied West Bank.

Palestinian security sources said Israeli troops raided Abd al-Jaber Fuqaha’s house in the al-Masyoun neighborhood of Ramallah and arrested him early on Tuesday.

The sources said that Israeli troops “aggressively” beat up Fuqaha during the raid.

Israeli forces have detained Fuqaha on multiple occasions in the past. The Palestinian lawmaker drew international attention in 2004 when he took part in a mass prisoner hunger strike to protest his detention.

More than 7,000 Palestinian prisoners are currently held in some 17 Israeli jails, dozens of whom are serving multiple life sentences.

Over 500 detainees are under the so-called administrative detention, which is a sort of imprisonment without trial or charge that allows Israel to incarcerate Palestinians for up to six months, extendable an infinite number of times.

Some prisoners have been held in administrative detention for up to 11 years without any charges brought against them.

Palestinian detainees have continuously resorted to open-ended hunger strikes in an attempt to express their outrage at the detentions.

Nearly 90 Palestinians made homeless

Meanwhile, Israeli military forces demolished eight EU-donated mobile homes in the Jabal al-Baba neighborhood of the village of al-Eizariya, which lies east of al-Quds (Jerusalem).

Atallah Mazaraa, a local Palestinian official, said Israeli forces dismantled the structures on Monday without giving prior notice to residents. Some 90 Palestinian Bedouins, the majority of them children, were left homeless as a result.

A woman from the Arab Jahalin Bedouin community stands amid the debris of homes in the West Bank Bedouin camp of al-Khan al-Ahmar after Israeli authorities demolished four houses there, April 7, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

On April 28, the UN said Israel’s demolition campaign against Palestinian homes and structures across the occupied West Bank had seen a four-fold increase compared to last year.

The demolitions have left a record number of 808 Palestinians displaced since the start of the current year, it said.

The demolitions have raised alarm among diplomats and human rights groups over the Tel Aviv regime’s continued violation of international law.

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