RAMALLAH – The Israeli forces operating in several West Bank areas on early Wednesday arrested 24 Palestinians, Palestinian and Israeli sources said. The Palestinian sources said the 24 residents were arrested in the East Jerusalem's town of Anata, Hebron and Nablus area and Jenin's refugee camp. The spokesman of Israeli army said that the detainees were wanted by the Israeli security forces and were taken to unknown locations for questioning by the Israeli internal intelligence service Shin Bet. He added that the Israeli soldiers seized improvised Uzi (Israeli-made machine-gun) and Karl Gustav firearms. The Palestinian Authority (PA) says that the daily Israeli raids in the West Bank cities and villages hinder its security forces to tighten their grip on the Palestinian territories. Israel does not allow the PA to have any security role in specific areas in the West Bank that the 1993 Oslo peace agreement between the two sides classified as C areas, which makes up more than 60 percent of the West Bank lands. According to the recent Palestinian statistics, Israel is holding 4,600 prisoners in 23 prisons and detention camps in Israel and in the West Bank of whom 198 children, 8 females, 14 members of Palestine Legislative Council. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had repeatedly said the Palestinians will not sign any final peace agreement before Israel shuts down all its prisons and releases all the Palestinian prisoners, which were rejected by Israel. Meanwhile, Israeli authorities demolished several structures in the Al-Nabi Samuel village, to the northwest of Jerusalem, under the pretext they were build without the needed building permits. Palestinian security sources said that the Israeli military bulldozers backed by security forces and Israeli Civil Administration demolished sheep barns owned by the Barakat family. Also in Palestinian territories, the Jewish-dominated Jerusalem municipality handed demolition orders to several Palestinian families in the East Jerusalem's town of Silwan under the pretext that they were illegally built. Fakhri Abu Diab, the coordinator of the Committee for Defending Land in East Jerusalem, handed the warrants to families in the Al-Bustan, Ein Al-Louzeh, Beer Ayoub and Al-Ein Al-Fouqa areas. Abu Diab said that homes are owned by the Al-Qadi, Radi, Qara'een, Badran, Qaimari and Maragheh families. Silwan is home to some 60,000 Palestinians and 500 Jewish occupiers. Rightist Jewish groups say that only Jews should live on this land. The resulting friction between the tens of thousands of Palestinians and some 70 occupiers' families requires the presence of dozens of Israel security guards and surveillance cameras. The Jerusalem municipality's planning committee approved a contentious plan to raze the 22 Palestinian homes in Al-Bustan to make room for a tourist center in the area. The center, which is called Al Bustan in Arabic and Gan Hamelekh (King's Garden) in Hebrew, is to include restaurants and boutique hotels. The plan has raised controversy in Israel and even protest from the US, Europe, the UN and the Palestinians. The policy of house demolitions and settlement building in East Jerusalem is being used by the Israeli authorities and Jewish-dominated Jerusalem municipality to increase Jewish presence and manipulate the composition of the population in order to gain more control over the city prior to final status talks with the Palestinian Authority. Palestinians hope to make East Jerusalem the capital of their future state but the Israel says the city is its eternal capital.
