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BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces detained at least 19 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem between Monday night and Tuesday morning.

Local sources in occupied East Jerusalem said that Israeli forces detained an employee of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, Mahmoud al-Anati, from inside the walled holy site on Tuesday morning, as some 57 right-wing Israelis and settlers toured the compound.

The sources added that another Al-Aqsa employee, Anas al-Dabbagh, was banned from entering the compound for two weeks by Israeli authorities on Monday.

Local sources in the town of Beit Fajjar in the southern occupied West Bank district of Bethlehem said Israeli forces detained 18-year-old Muhammad Mansour Thawabta and 19-year-old Baraa Nabil Thawabta from their homes in the town.

In the southern Hebron district, locals said that Israeli forces detained Jalal Jamal Yaghmour from his home in the Bir al-Mahjar area in Hebron city.

In the northernmost West Bank district of Jenin, locals said Israeli forces detained Muhammad Abdullah Jaradat, who is in his twenties, at an Israeli military checkpoint in Haifa Street in Silat al-Harithiya village. The sources said that Jaradat is a student at the Arab American University.

Israeli forces also raided Jenin refugee camp overnight and detained 20-year-old Afham Muhammad Jabarin and 21-year-old Wasim Iyad Matahin after ransacking their homes in the camp, local sources said.

An Israeli army spokesperson told Ma’an that a total of 18 Palestinians were detained in predawn military raids in the West Bank, including four in the southern Bethlehem district near the illegal Israeli Etzion settlement bloc, and three in the northern West Bank.

According to prisoners’ rights group Addameer, 6,279 Palestinians were detained by Israel as of August. The group has estimated that some 40 percent of Palestinian men will be detained by Israel at some point in their lives.

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