Israeli forces detain Palestinian minister of Jerusalem al-Quds affairs

Israeli military forces have arrested the Palestinian minister of Jerusalem al-Quds affairs on charges of conducting political activity in the occupied territory.

Palestine's official WAFA news agency reported that Israeli soldiers stormed Fadi al-Hadami’s house in the al-Sawana neighborhood of Jerusalem al-Quds early on Wednesday, and violently ransacking it for hours before taking the Palestinian minister away to an unknown location.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfled said Hadami was detained on charges of allegedly breaking a law prohibiting political activity in Jerusalem al-Quds by the Palestinian Authority, which is based in the occupied central West Bank city of Ramallah, located 10 kilometers (6 miles) north of Jerusalem al-Quds.

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) condemned the arrest, describing it part of the Israeli regime’s plans to Judaize Jerusalem al-Quds.

Adnan al-Husseini, member of PLO Executive Committee, said the Tel Aviv regime's continued arrests of Palestinian figures in Jerusalem al-Quds is unjustified and part of “violations against civil.”

Additionally, the Palestinian government spokesman Ibrahim Melhem said Israel's actions “are an extension for its policy of targeting, harming and Judaizing the holy city.”

Israeli forces also summoned the Palestinian Authority's governor of Jerusalem al-Quds, Adnan Ghaith, to appear for questioning as part of an unspecified investigation.

Because Ghaith was not home at the time, Israeli authorities presented his family with the summons and asked his son to appear before Israeli intelligence for questioning.

Previously, Hadami was arrested in late June by Israeli police and questioned over his “activities in Jerusalem” al-Quds.

Ghaith had been arrested last October and questioned on suspicion of being involved in an abduction case involving a Jerusalem resident.

Jerusalem al-Quds remains at the core of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, with Palestinians hoping that the eastern part of the city would eventually serve as the capital of a future independent Palestinian state.

Israel occupied the West Bank in the 1967 Six-Day War, in a move never recognized by the international community.

Israeli forces also arrested four Palestinians, including a 41-year-old female teacher, her mother and two minors aged 13 and 15, in the southern West Bank city of al-Khalil (Hebron) located 30 kilometers (19 miles) south of Jerusalem al-Quds.

PressTV-‘Israel has arrested 16,500 Palestinian minors since 2000’

Israel has arrested some 16,500 Palestinian children since the outbreak of the Second Intifada (uprising) in late-2000, a study says.

A Palestinian was detained in Birzeit town north of Ramallah after Israeli soldiers raided his student residence.

Israeli forces detained three people in Nablus, and an 18-year-old teenager in the northern West Bank city of Jenin.

A 14-year-old minor was detained in Bethlehem, while two minors were arrested in Qalqilya. A man was detained in Ariha (Jericho) as well.

More than 7,000 Palestinians are reportedly held at Israeli jails. Hundreds of the inmates have apparently been incarcerated under the practice of administrative detention, a policy under which Palestinian inmates are kept in Israeli detention facilities without trial or charge.

Some Palestinian prisoners have been held in administrative detention for up to eleven years.

Palestinian inmates regularly stage hunger strikes in protest at the administrative detention policy and their harsh prison conditions in Israeli jails.

According to reports, at least 13 Palestinian lawmakers are currently imprisoned in Israeli detention facilities. Nine of them are being held without trial under administrative detention.

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