The Palestinian Authority and Israel carried out a major arrest campaign targeting Palestinian activists.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces launched a campaign of arrests targeting top Islamic Jihad and Hamas activists in the Jenin area on Sunday, Aljazeera and other media outlets reported.
The arrests by the PA coincided with the Israeli occupation forces’ arrest of 25 Palestinians throughout the West Bank.
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Islamic Jihad sources told Al Jazeera that PA security services launched a campaign of mass arrests targeting Hamas activists in the town of Jaba in Jenin governorate in the northern West Bank.
The continued PA arrests campaign started shortly after the Israeli military invaded Jenin on July 3, killing and wounding hundreds of Palestinians.
The arrests by the PA included prominent activists Eid Hamamra, Muhammad Alawneh, Muhammad Malaisheh, Moamen Fashafsha, and Imad Khalili.
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The Islamic Jihad described the arrests as “a nationally and morally unacceptable crime against the people and their resistance.”
The group also said that the PA is refusing to release activists from the Al-Quds Brigades that it had arrested a few days ago.
The Brigades are the military arm of the Islamic Jihad.
There was no immediate comment from the PA on the arrest of Islamic Jihad activists.
Meanwhile, PA police released journalist Akeel Awawdeh after he was detained by the Preventive Security Service (PSS) in Beitunia, near Ramallah last Thursday evening.
Yesterday, a PA court decided to release Awawdeh on bail after rejecting a request by the Public Prosecution to extend his detention for an additional 15 days to complete its ‘investigation procedures’.
The PSS arrested Awawdeh after he posted a video on social media criticizing a recent statement by a spokesman for the PA security services in which he denied the existence of political arrests in the West Bank.
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Israeli Raids
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club said that the Israeli occupation forces arrested 25 Palestinians during a campaign of raids carried out in different areas of the West Bank, including 16 Palestinians from the Hebron governorate alone.
According to the statement of the Prisoners’ Club, the other arrests were carried out in the cities of Nablus, Ramallah, Jericho, occupied Jerusalem, and Jenin.
Palestinian journalist Akeel Awawdeh has been arrested by the Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces after he posted a video on social media dismissing claims by a spokesman for the PA security services that there are no political arrests in the occupied West Bank. pic.twitter.com/5SI2GZ6jAr
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) July 16, 2023
The number of arrests carried out by the Israeli occupation army during the first half of this year is estimated at about 4,000 cases.
(AJA, PC)
