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Israeli soldiers in Hebron (AFP/File)
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HEBRON (Ma’an) -- Israeli military forces continued a wide scale detention campaign across the Hebron district in the southern occupied West Bank overnight Wednesday, locals said.

For the second night in a row, Palestinian neighborhoods were raided by Israeli forces who conducted house-to-house searches, clashed with Palestinian residents, and detained over twenty people.

In the northern Hebron town of Beit Ummar, Israeli troops detained nine residents, a spokesman of a local popular committee in the town, Muhammad Ayyad Awad, said.

The detainees were identified as Imad Hamdi Abu Mariya, 37, Yazan Imad Muhammad Sleibi, 19, Hisham Fathi Sabarnah, 20, Ramzi Muhammad Abu Mariya, 27, Muhammad Ibrahim Sabarnah, 24, Ahmad Abdullah Abu Ayyash, 23, Imad Badir Ikhlayyil, 40, Iyad Kamil Bahar, 40, and his brother Sami, 24.

Many suffered from tear gas inhalation when clashes broke out between Israeli forces and young Palestinian residents, Awad said, adding that a paramedic of the Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance service, Muhammad Munthir Breighith, 20, was hit with a rubber-coated bullet that Israeli soldiers fired at his ambulance.

Israeli forces also raided the nearby neighborhood of Halhul, detaining several. Locals identified seven of the detainees as Bilal al-Khatib, Muhammad Abu Dayyah, Yousif Zamaarah, Muhammad Zamaarah, Abdul-Muhsin Zamaarah, Ahmad Hneihin, and Samir Zamaarah.

In the city of Hebron, Israeli troops detained Karim Maswadah, Akram Zahdah, Abdul-Muhsin Skafi, Rami Abu Munshar , Uday al-Qawasmi, and Muhammad Jawad al-Fallah.

In the town of Dura in southwest Hebron, locals said Israeli troops detained Muataz Shahir Nammurah after assaulting him.

An Israeli army spokesperson confirmed four arrests in Beit Ummar for "illegal activity," but was unable to elaborate on the nature of the activity.

In Halhul, the spokesperson told Ma'an one "Hamas operative" was detained, adding that five had been detained from Hebron for "illegal activity," but had no further record of detentions in the Hebron district.

Israeli authorities have orchestrated mass detention raids in Palestinian towns throughout the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem following fatal attacks on four Israelis over the past week, with over 20 detained from the Hebron district overnight Tuesday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday announced plans for Israeli police to go "deeply into Arab neighborhoods, which has not been done before."

The campaigns are a part of alleged efforts by Israeli authorities to "deescalate" current tensions in the area, measures that Palestinian ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, referred to Wednesday as "repression and collective punishment."

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