During the past two weeks, the Israeli military raided Jenin, Hebron, Qalqiliya and the Bureij refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. Twenty four Palestinians, including five children, were arrested and several homes were raided and vandalised during these military operations. Al-Haq is gravely concerned about the arbitrary and violent nature of Israeli military raids against Palestinian civilians and property.
On 22 August at approximately 2:00 am, the Israeli military raided the Jabal al-Shamali neighbourhood of Nablus, where Jamal Muhammad Samhan and his family live. Jamal, along with his two sons, Ra’ed (20 years old) and Mahmoud (19 years old), were woken up by military jeeps patrolling the area. From his window, Jamal saw approximately 100 soldiers in the area. Shortly afterwards, he heard noises coming from outside the main door of his home, and when Jamal opened it, he found ten soldiers, two of whom were hooded, pointing their rifles at him. The soldiers ordered him and his sons to exit the house. Once the three Palestinians left their home, the soldiers ordered them to face the wall and began to conduct a body search on Jamal.
At the time of writing, Mahmoud is still in detention and no charges had been brought against him.
On the same night, the Israeli military arrested two more Palestinians, Ramadan Mustafa Shahin and Iyad ‘Issa Ma’rouf, in ‘Ein Beit-al-Ma’ refugee camp. The houses belonging to each family were also vandalised by the Israeli military during the arrests.