As Israel releases Palestinian prisoners, it arrests dozens more
By Hiba Yazbek
RAMALLAH – As families and crowds gathered in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Monday (27) night to greet Palestinian prisoners and detainees released from Israeli custody, Israel’s ongoing escalation of arrests in the territory showed no signs of slowing down.
The Israeli military said it had arrested at least 71 Palestinians from across the occupied West Bank since Friday (24) on unspecified charges. The Palestinian Authority’s commission for prisoner affairs gave a higher number, saying Monday that Israeli forces had arrested at least 112 Palestinians since Friday, including 60 in the past day.
Under an agreement Israel and Hamas have honoured since Friday, Israel has freed 117 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, with 33 more expected to be released Monday night.
The Israeli military has escalated its night-time raids across the West Bank and east Jerusalem since the Hamas-led attacks Oct. 7, saying that it had arrested at least 2,000 Palestinians in that period. The military has said that the arrests are part of a counterterrorism operation against Hamas throughout the territory.
The arrests included “children, the elderly, women, and hundreds of former prisoners,” the Palestinian commission said in a statement Monday.
The deal between Israel and Hamas has allowed scores of Palestinian families to be reunited with their loved ones. That has brought a rare moment of relief and celebration across the West Bank and east Jerusalem, where violence had been escalating over the past few weeks.
But the deal did not offer a break from the bloodshed in the West Bank. At least seven Palestinians, including four teenagers, were killed by Israeli forces in clashes that erupted during military raids across the territory since Friday, according to the United Nations.
At least 222 people have been killed in the West Bank since Oct. 7, according to the UN amid the deadliest year for Palestinians there in over a decade. The majority were shot by Israeli soldiers in gun battles during Israeli search-and-arrest operations, the UN said.
-New York Times
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