Mass arrests bring further misery to Palestinians

Israel has arrested 1,500 Palestinians since the death of Mohammad Abu Khdeir, a Palestinian boy who was kidnapped and killed by Jewish settlers in July.

The figure was released by the Palestinian Prisoners' Club [PPC], an NGO that assists Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons.

"Some of those arrested were set free at a later stage, while others have been expelled [from Jerusalem to the West Bank or Gaza], put under house arrest or have to face huge fines," a statement from the NGO read.

The PPC and the Families of Jerusalemite Prisoners Committee told al-Araby al-Jadeed that 60 Palestinians from Jerusalem were arrested in just one week.

Figures from October show that 5,447 Palestinians were being held in Israeli jails.

Ever since the establishment of a special unit within the Israeli intelligence agency to counter a possible Palestinian Intifada in Jerusalem, more than 250 activists from Jerusalem alone have been arrested, out of a total of more than 700 activists arrested in the past two months.

Activists from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine [PFLP] in Jerusalem have also been forcibly expelled to the West Bank and Israel.

This followed an attack on worshippers at a synagogue by PFLP members, although this was understood not to be a coordinated attack by the group.

This article is an edited translation from our Arabic edition.