The Israeli occupational forces launched large-scale arrest campaigns, detaining Palestinian residents of the occupied West Bank cities, including the mayor of Hebron, according to an official statement.
Witnesses told Anadolu on Tuesday that 13 people were detained by the Israeli army in the Nablus governorate in the northern occupied West Bank.
One Palestinian was hospitalised after being assaulted and beaten by the army forces in the Kafr Qalil village of Nablus, witnesses added.
Two more people were detained in the northern city of Qalqilya and another in Ramallah, central West Bank, according to local sources.
Hebron municipality said in a statement that Mayor Tayseer Abu Sneineh was arrested at dawn, after large army forces stormed his house and damaged his possessions.
“This brutal attack doesn’t only target the mayor but also targets the will of the people of Hebron and its elected institutions and constitutes a blatant attack on the democratic process and the right of our people to manage their affairs and serve their city with freedom and dignity,” the municipality said in a statement.
The municipal council held the Israeli authorities fully responsible for Abu Sneineh’s arrest and called on international human rights organisations “to carry their legal and moral responsibilities to pile pressure (on Israel) for the immediate release of the mayor and to put an end to the escalating (Israeli) violations against the city’s leaders and citizens.”
Israel is currently holding around 10,800 Palestinians in its prisons, including about 450 children, 50 women, and 3,629 administrative detainees, according to official Palestinian figures.
These numbers exclude thousands of cases of enforced disappearance of detainees from Gaza.
At least 1,016 Palestinians have been killed and more than 7,000 wounded in the occupied West Bank by Israeli forces and illegal settlers since October 2023, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
In a landmark opinion last July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal, demanding the evacuation of all settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
