Israeli soldiers detain 40 Palestinians, including blind man, in overnight raids

Occupying Israeli forces detained dozens of Palestinians, including a blind man and teenagers, during overnight raids across the West Bank.

The Palestinian Prisoners' Society and the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that around 40 Palestinians from different parts of the occupied West Bank were detained on Wednesday night and early on Thursday morning.

Among those detained was Izz al-Din Amarneh, a former prisoner who is also blind. Israeli forces raided his home in the town of Yabad, near Jenin, along with four other men from the Jenin district.

Soldiers also arrested 13 people in the Ramallah area. They included a 52-year-old man and his two sons, aged 18 and 22, in the town of Silwad, east of Ramallah and ten people from the village of Deir Abu Mishal, to the north of Ramallah.

A 47-year-old man and his 16 and 17-year-old sons were detained in Hebron. In the nearby Arroub refugee camp, another man was detained, while a 50-year-old man and his 19-year-old son were taken from the Fowwar refugee camp.

A total of 11 people were detained in the Hebron area, including 27 and 30-year-old siblings from Yatta. Palestinians in Hebron suffer from regular attacks by extremist Israeli settlers living in the centre of the city.

Israeli soldiers also swooped in on the occupied East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Isawiyya and arrested nine people.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, in defiance of international law, and commits regular abuses against Palestinian civilians.

More than 600,000 Israeli Jews live in settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, in constructions considered illegal under international law.