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Ramallah:
The Israeli forces operating in several West Bank areas yesterday
arrested 24 Palestinians. The Palestinian sources said the 24
residents were arrested in the East Jerusalem’s town of Anata,
Hebron and Nablus area and Jenin’s refugee camp.
The spokesman of Israeli army said
that the detainees were wanted by the Israeli security forces and
were taken to unknown locations for questioning by the Israeli
internal intelligence service Shin Bet.
He added that the Israeli soldiers
seized improvised Uzi (Israeli-made machine-gun) and Karl Gustav
firearms.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) says that the daily Israeli raids
in the West Bank cities and villages hinder its security forces to
tighten their grip on the Palestinian territories.
Israel does not allow the PA to have
any security role in specific areas in the West Bank that the 1993
Oslo peace agreement between the two sides classified as C areas,
which makes up more than 60 percent of the West Bank lands.
According to the recent Palestinian statistics, Israel is holding
4,600 prisoners in 23 prisons and detention camps in Israel and in
the West Bank of whom 198 children, 8 females, 14 members of
Palestine Legislative Council.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas
had repeatedly said the Palestinians will not sign any final peace
agreement before Israel shuts down all its prisons and releases
all the Palestinian prisoners, which were rejected by Israel.
Meanwhile, Israeli authorities demolished several structures in
the Al-Nabi Samuel village, to the northwest of Jerusalem, under
the pretext they were build without the needed building permits.
Palestinian security sources said
that the Israeli military bulldozers backed by security forces and
Israeli Civil Administration demolished sheep barns owned by the
Barakat family.
Also in Palestinian territories, the Jewish-dominated Jerusalem
municipality handed demolition orders to several Palestinian
families in the East Jerusalem’s town of Silwan under the pretext
that they were illegally built.
Fakhri Abu Diab, the coordinator of
the Committee for Defending Land in East Jerusalem, handed the
warrants to families in the Al-Bustan, Ein Al-Louzeh, Beer Ayoub
and Al-Ein Al-Fouqa areas.
Abu Diab said that homes are owned
by the Al-Qadi, Radi, Qara’een, Badran, Qaimari and Maragheh
families. Silwan is home to some 60,000 Palestinians and 500
Jewish occupiers.
Rightist Jewish groups say that only Jews should live on this
land. The resulting friction between the tens of thousands of
Palestinians and some 70 occupiers’ families requires the presence
of dozens of Israel security guards and surveillance cameras.
The Jerusalem municipality’s
planning committee approved a contentious plan to raze the 22
Palestinian homes in Al-Bustan to make room for a tourist center
in the area.
The center, which is called Al
Bustan in Arabic and Gan Hamelekh (King’s Garden) in Hebrew, is to
include restaurants and boutique hotels. The plan has raised
controversy in Israel and even protest from the US, Europe, the UN
and the Palestinians.
The policy of house demolitions and settlement building in East
Jerusalem is being used by the Israeli authorities and
Jewish-dominated Jerusalem municipality to increase Jewish
presence and manipulate the composition of the population in order
to gain more control over the city prior to final status talks
with the Palestinian Authority.
Palestinians hope to make East
Jerusalem the capital of their future state but the Israel says
the city is its eternal capital.
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