Israeli police carried out a wide-scale detention campaign across al-Naqab (Negev) on Tuesday, detaining more than 40 Palestinians, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
Eyewitnesses confirmed that Israeli police conducted the mass detention campaign as part of Israel’s violent crackdown on Palestinian protests condemning the demolitions of property and forced expulsions in al-Naqab.
Israel’s arrest rampage in the Naqab is ongoing. Now they are entering al-Sau’a village. This is a long standing Israeli strategy to crush resistance & intimidate Palestinians into submission. It never worked & it won’t now. At least 45 arrests this morning. #انقذوا_النقب pic.twitter.com/AtcVZEOL9o
— Riya Al (@RiyaAlsanah) January 18, 2022
According to local sources, most of those detained are minors, who were arrested for their participation in the protests against Israeli bulldozers razing Palestinian lands, primarily in the village of Sa’wa Al-Atrash.
They also confirmed that the Israeli police raided a number of Naqab-district villages, broke into residents’ houses and ransacked them before detaining dozens.
— #SaveSheikhJarra #SaveSilwan #BDS #Yemen #Kashmir (@ChristineJameis) January 13, 2022
Israeli activities are part of the so-called “afforestation” project of the Jewish National Fund (JNF). However, local residents affirm that it is a prelude to the confiscation of their land by Israel.
“The current stage of the project targets the land belonging to six Arab villages,” Jomaa Zabarqeh, of the Supreme Arab Guidance Committee in the Naqab, told Anadolu news agency.
“People live on their land and in their homes, but the JNF is afforesting the land around them. This is unacceptable.”
According to Zabarqeh, such attempts to confiscate the land are not new but have increased sharply recently.
Over 130 Palestinians, including women and children, have been arrested by Israeli police during the recent confrontations in al-Naqab during the past week.
(WAFA, PC, Social Media)
