IOF Mass Troops Around Arafat’s Headquarters

IOF Mass Troops Around Arafat’s Headquarters
Israel Continues Raids, Detentions in West Bank in Violation of Truce

Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) massed troops near and around the presidential headquarters in Ramallah city early Thursday, according to Palestinians security sources, which also said that IOF have detained more than a dozen Palestinians in the past forty-eight hours in the West Bank, mostly reoccupied last year.

Security sources confirmed that IOF soldiers occupied many buildings around President Yasser Arafat’s offices. Dozens of soldiers were seen on the roofs of the buildings, witnesses said.

Meanwhile, IOF detained a number of Palestinians in Nablus and Hebron cities, claiming they were Intifada activists.

At least three Palestinians were detained in Hebron after the IOF stormed Palestinian houses in the southern West Bank city, Palestinian security sources said.

Israeli occupation troops also carried out a wide-scale house-to-house search campaign in Soreef town near Hebron, the Palestine News Agency (WAFA) reported.

Israeli military troops, accompanied by members of the Israeli intelligence, forced many citizens to leave their houses at gunpoint and detained dozens of them, eyewitnesses told WAFA.

In the northern West Bank city of Nablus, the IOF detained early Tuesday four Palestinians as they stormed into a number of neighborhoods in the city, eyewitnesses said, adding that Israeli occupation soldiers raided the houses amidst intensive random shooting.

On Wednesday, IOF soldiers detained another four Palestinians in Nablus city, witnesses said.

IOF also detained three Palestinians in the northern West Bank town of Tubas, Palestinian security sources said.

Israeli military sources admitted that IOF had detained a number of Palestinians in the West Bank but alleged they were members of Fatah, Hamas and Isalmic Jihad groups.

Palestinian factions announced a temporary truce last month, halting Palestinian attacks against Israeli targets.

However, Palestinian factions said that the truce would not hold if IOF continue their raids into Palestinian cities and towns and if Israel does not release the Palestinian detainees in its jails.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Palestinian children, whose fathers are detained by IOF, marched in Gaza city demanding the release of their beloved ones from the Israeli occupation jails.

The issue of Palestinian detainees is a basic obstacle facing the implementation of the internationally backed “roadmap” for peace.

Palestinians demand the release of all detainees from Israeli jails. Israel has agreed to release some 350 Palestinian detainees; most of them were under administrative detention.

Under administrative detention, prisoners are detained without trial or accusation for a renewable period of several months.

Separately, a Palestinian young man was wounded when IOF opened their heavy machine gunfire at residential neighborhoods, north of the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis.

The wounded was identified as Zakariya al-Faqawi, 18. Medical sources said al-Faqawi was wounded in his hand, adding that his condition was stable.

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