On Tuesday, Israeli forces abducted at least 24 Hamas activists in a raid on Qalqilya area in the occupied West Bank. Sources say Israelis broke into the sleeping homes and interrogated Palestinian families while searching their property.
“Israeli arrests last night against Hamas activists in the West Bank will not succeed in suppressing the Intifada,” Hamas said in a statement on its official website, Press TV reported.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri also said on Tuesday that the arrests, surveillance and other acts of repression by the Israeli regime will only strengthen Palestinians’ resolve to continue the uprising, warning that the Tel Aviv regime “will pay the price for its crimes.”
Israeli authorities have recently issued administrative detention orders for nine Palestinian minors, the Palestinian Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs (CPA) said Monday.
Administrative detention is a sort of imprisonment without trial or charge that allows Israel to incarcerate Palestinians for up to six months. The detention order can be renewed for indefinite periods of time. The number of Palestinian prisoners held as administrative detainees in Israeli jails has exceeded 500.
In a separate development on Tuesday, Israeli forces shot dead yet another Palestinian in East al-Quds (Jerusalem) over an alleged stabbing attack.
Tensions in the occupied territories have dramatically escalated in recent weeks due to the Israeli regime’s imposition of restrictions in August on the entry of Palestinian worshipers to the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East al-Quds (Jerusalem).
Palestinians are angry at increasing violence by Israeli settlers at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound and their attacks on Palestinian properties, saying that the Tel Aviv regime seeks to change the status quo of the compound.
Last month, senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh called the recent spate of clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank and East al-Quds an Intifada against the Tel Aviv regime.
Over 80 Palestinians have been killed in the recent escalation of violence since the start of October.