Al-Quds Center for Israeli and Palestinian Studies has said that the Israeli occupation army in March 2020 arrested 292 Palestinians, including 17 children and 3 women, in the West Bank and Jerusalem despite the region being hit with the Coronavirus pandemic.

The Center said that 124 arrests were reported in Jerusalem alone which witnessed stepped up arrest and home raid campaigns.

In the West Bank, 157 arrest cases were distributed to the provinces of al-Khalil, Ramallah, Nablus, Qalqilya, Jenin, Tulkarem, Bethlehem, Salfit, Tubas and the Northern Jordan Valley.

Three Palestinians were arrested in the 1948 Occupied Territories and four in the Gaza Strip, including two businessmen kidnapped at Beit Hanoun (Erez) crossing.

Director of the field documentation department at al-Quds Center Rola Hasanein said that despite the rapid spread of the Coronavirus disease locally and globally, the Israeli occupation forces carry out daily raid and arrest campaigns in the Palestinian territories putting the lives of Palestinian residents at risk.

Hasanein pointed out that the detained Palestinians are kept in poor conditions were the minimum safety measures are not taken to protect them from contracting the novel virus.

 

Source: The Palestinian Information Center