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by IMEMC News

Israeli troops invaded several parts of the West Bank before dawn on Tuesday, abducting 12 Palestinians from their homes while they were sleeping.

According to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society, four Palestinians were abducted from Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem: Marwan Fararja, 18, Omar Emad Radi, Yazan Hamza al-Kurd, 17, and Rami Nasser Assaf, 18. All four teens had previously been imprisoned by Israel without charges under so-called ‘administrative detention’ and had been released.

In addition, four Palestinians from the Hebron district were abducted: Issa Ahmed Ta’amra, 22, former prisoner Hassan Mohammed Hassan, 25, and Adel Ahmed Zaqaiq, 16. All three are from Beit Ummar town. Also in the Hebron District, Israeli troops abducted Musa Gabriel Musa Omar.

In al-Issawiya, Israeli troops abducted Mahmoud Fayez Mahmoud, who is the head of the Parents’ Committee of al-Issawiya that has organized a school strike since Saturday, and had just announced a non-violent protest for Tuesday to challenge the daily Israeli invasions of the town.

Also in al-Issawiya, Israeli troops abducted Yousef Ra’ed Abdullah Hamed, 18, Hassan Tayseer Hammad, 18, and Rashad Mohammed.

In addition to the pre-dawn raids on Tuesday, Israeli authorities in Jerusalem decided Monday evening to extend the detention of the secretary general of the Fatah movement in al-Issawiya, Yasser Darwish. The targeting and harassment of Palestinian public officials in East Jerusalem has become a commonplace and daily occurrence for Israeli troops. These Palestinian elected officials are generally accused of nothing more than holding a public office.

Since Israeli authorities are actively working to de-populate East Jerusalem of its Palestinian residents in order to further Israeli colonization of the city, the abductions of Palestinian public officials are carried out by Israeli police on a regular basis. The ‘crime’ of these officials is asserting Palestinian sovereignty over parts of the city that Israel is attempting to violently take over for colonization.

Also on Monday, Israeli forces abducted two mothers of Palestinian prisoners who had come to the prison of Megiddo to visit their children. The mothers of prisoners Wissam Hanoun and Mustafa al-Qunayri were taken into custody by Israeli troops after a scuffle at the entrance to the prison in which the two mothers were beaten.

One of them, the mother of Wissam Hanoun, was released later that night without charges. al-Qunayri’s mother remains in custody. The two mothers were apparently attempting to bring clothes to their sons in prison, since the Israeli authorities do not provide adequate clothing for the cold nights in the drafty Megiddo prison facility. But the prison officials tried to prevent them from bringing the clothes, and instead abducted the two women and took them into custody.

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