In the early morning hours of Monday, 23 October, Israeli occupation forces carried out mass arrests in the village of Issawiya, with reports noting that 50 Palestinians had been seized by occupation forces in occupied Jerusalem and the West Bank in pre-dawn raids.
Dozens of military vehicles stormed the Jerusalem town of Issawiya accompanied by an overflying helicopter as occupation forces stormed a number of homes, reportedly arresting over 40 youths. Among the homes attacked was that of released prisoner and Palestinian lawyer Shireen Issawi; she was summoned to interrogation by the Israeli occupation intelligence forces under threat of re-arrest. Issawi’s nephew, Tarek Firas al-Issawi, was among the 40 youths arrested in the village.
Mohammed Abu al-Hommous, a member of the Follow-Up Committee of Issawiya, said to Ma’an News that 40 young people had been seized by occupation forces that raided their homes, and that after the mass arrests, forces re-entered the village, stationing themselves at the entrances and the center of town at the same time students left for school.
Mohammed Mahmoud, Palestinian lawyer who accompanied the detainees at Moskobiyeh interrogation center, said that 27 of the Issawiya youth remained in custody, including Mohammed Ibrahim Mustafa, Adham Khaled Abu Shammala, Ayoub Ali Abu al-Hommous, Bader Abu Assab, Uday Ali Derbas, Khaled Mohammed Ali, Walid Tawfiq Abu al-Hommous, Alaa Ahmad Dari, Abdel-Razzaq Musa Mustafa, Mohammed Ramadan Masri, Adam Kayed Mahmoud, Ahmed Eid al-Roumi, Wasim Eyad Dari, Yousef Issa Mustafa, Ahmed Abdel-Raouf Mahmoud, Mohmmed Tawfiq Abu al-Hommous, Amir Othman Darwish, Mohammed Hussein Assad, Yousef Tareq Darwish, Imad Abu Riyala, Mahmoud Attiyeh, Qusay Ahmad Dari, Maamoum Basil Mahmoud, Yazan al-Herbawi, Majd Marwan Dari and Fadi al-Issawi.
At least 14 of the detainees are children ranging in age from 14 to 17.
In addition, at least 15 more Palestinians from the West Bank were seized in a series of raids in Beit Fajjar south of Bethlehem, Qalandiya refugee camp and elsewhere.
