Israeli forces arrested the Palestinian governor of Jerusalem Adnan Ghaith on Monday after carrying out a dawn raid at his home in Silwan, occupied East Jerusalem.
Shadi Mutour, the secretary of the Fatah party, was also detained in a wave of raids by Israeli forces on Palestinian homes on Monday morning.
Pictures emerged on social media showing heavily armed Israeli soldiers arresting Ghaith inside his home.
The Palestinian governor of occupied Jerusalem Adnan Ghaith and Jerusalem regional secretary of Fatah Shadi Lemtour were…
Posted by Younes Arar on Sunday, October 13, 2019
The Palestinian Commission of Detainees’ Affairs released a statement condemning the repeated arrests of Ghaith and Mutour.
The reason for the arrests remains unclear as Israeli police are yet to issue an official statement.
Ghaith was last detained in February for a day, and before that in two separate incidents between October and December 2018.
Israeli police detained Jerusalem governor Adnan Ghaith in a dawn raid on Monday, 14 October 2019.
"The governor was arrested in a raid on his home in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan," the Palestinian Prisoners Society said in a statement.
— Abrar Khan (@khanabrar643) October 14, 2019
His previous arrest came after Israeli authorities banned him from entering the occupied West Bank.
Israel considers the entire city under its sovereignty, while the Palestinians see the eastern sector as the capital of their future state.
The Palestinian Governor of Jerusalem, Adnan Ghaith, has been arrested. We met him just before Christmas while in Palestine. A v worrying situation. Governor should be released without delay https://t.co/HZm6fxm0Ct pic.twitter.com/rc5GKaezXo
— Mary Lou McDonald (@MaryLouMcDonald) February 28, 2019
Palestinian Authority activities are barred from Jerusalem by Israel.
As a result, the PA has a minister for Jerusalem affairs and a Jerusalem governor located in al-Ram, just on the other side of Israel’s separation wall from Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank.
(Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, PC, Social Media)