When the ceasefire agreement in Gaza between Israel and Hamas was announced on January 15, Ghassan Alyeean said that his first feeling was relief that the massacres of his compatriots can finally end .
Like everyone in an occupied West Bank, Alyeean was eager to celebrate the freedom of 90 Palestinian prisoners who were to be released in the coming days in exchange for three Israeli captives as part of the ceasefire agreement.
But the next day-January 16, three days before the entry into force of the ceasefire-Israeli soldiers attacked the house of Alyean in Bethlehem and removed his 22-year-old son Adam, who was supposed to pass His university exams in the coming days.
“They took him for no reason,” said 60 -year -old. “There was no way to defend him, he or my family.
“We are not saboteurs,” he said, which means that they did not resist and did not provoke disorders.
Since the announcement of the ceasefire in Gaza, Israel has arrested at least 95 Palestinians during raids and at control points without clear reason in the West Bank, according to Jenna Abu Hasna, researcher at Addameer, an organization of civil society Palestinian who monitors arrests and detentions in the West Bank. the occupied territory.
Many of them were arrested a few days after the start of the ceasefire entered into force on January 19.
The massive incarceration of the Palestinians is only one aspect of the illegal occupation of the West Bank by Israel, which also implies the expansion of the illegal Israeli colonies and the massacre, injuries and massive dispossession of civilians, according to groups defense of rights and families of prisoners.
“The situation we are experiencing is really difficult right now. We are treated as slaves … or even less than slaves, “said Alyeean from his home.
Repression tool
Since Israel captured and occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza during the 1967 Israeli War, Israel has imprisoned some 800,000 Palestinians throughout the occupied territory, according to the UN and B’tselem, an Israeli organization defense of human rights.
“(Mass incarceration) is part of the apartheid regime,” said B’tsem spokesperson Sharon.
“This is part of an attempt to make the lives of the Palestinians miserable in order to make them want to leave,” he added.
Abuhasna d’Addameer also said that Israel used to rearore dozens – sometimes hundreds – of Palestinians who were released as part of “captivity agreements”. Sometimes this happens immediately after the conclusion of an agreement, sometimes months, even years later.
She referred to the captivity agreement for the return of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who had been captured by Hamas during a cross -border raid and brought back to Gaza in 2005.
Five years later, Shalit was finally released in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners, including Yahya Sinwar who helped orchestrate the attacks of October 7 and which Israel killed Gaza in October.
Three years later, Israel seized houses and again arrested dozens of Palestinians who had been released as part of the Shalit agreement without obvious reason.
In addition, Israel has arrested and rearraged hundreds of people in the West Bank since he concluded a captive agreement with Hamas during a temporary cease-fire between the two belligerent parties in November 2023, said Abuhasna.
“The tactics of holding Palestinians, even during an agreement or when an exchange of prisoners takes place, is nothing new,” she told Tel Aviv Tribune.
“The (Israeli) occupation continues to have Palestinians the same day in the liberation of prisoners and sometimes days or years later, because this is what an occupation does: it violates international law,” it She added.
A rotating door
Despite the recent arrests, many Palestinian families were able to welcome their loved ones at home after the last exchange of captives on January 20.
Mohamed Amro, 55, father of seven children and living in Hébron, said that he had finally found his 23 -year -old daughter, Janin, who had been kidnapped in the middle of the night at the family home during an Israeli attack. RAID of December 3, 2023 – less than two months after the start of the war against Gaza.
He still remembers the events of this heartbreaking night, which has become a common experience for many Palestinians living under occupation in the West Bank.
“The soldiers of the Occupation pushed the door and entered, then removed it from his bed,” Amro told Tel Aviv Tribune.
Janin was placed in administrative detention, a process inherited from the colonial mandate of the United Kingdom in Palestine which lasted from 1920 to 1948. During this period, the United Kingdom often imprisoned Palestinian criticism and resistance fighters without reason, without trial And on the basis of secret accusations.
When Israel obtained state status after having expected the Palestinians from their land in 1948 – an event called Nakba, or “disaster” – he joined this process in order to judge the Palestinians before military courts rather than courts courts civilians where Israelis are tried.
Amro said her daughter was still not aware of the charges against her and that she had been subjected to extreme ill -treatment in prison. “Since the day she was taken until the day she was released, Janin slept and woke up every night on the cold ground. Her room was also very freezing … and she was constantly afraid, “he said.
Threats and intimidation
Amro was one of the hundreds of people who waited in the cold for about 10 hours in Beitounia, in the West Bank, until the Palestinian prisoners from the exchange of captives were released.
The prisoners were to be released around 4:00 p.m. (2:00 p.m. GMT) at the end of the afternoon on January 19, but it was delayed until 2:00 am (00:00 GMT) the next morning. When he finally saw Janin out, he immediately saw that she had lost a lot of weight and that she had dark pockets under her eyes because of the lack of sleep.
Amro quickly brought her daughter back home so that she could rest and finally have a good night’s sleep after spending more than a year in prison.
“She was traumatized,” Amro told Tel Aviv Tribune. “She was not able to fully explain how they treated her in prison.”
The next day, Israeli soldiers struck at the door of Amro and warned him not to organize a party or celebrate the release of Janin, otherwise they would stop him again.
He promised not to do it, but he remains terrified that the Israeli soldiers are making a new descent to his home to arrest Janin or one of his other children.
Living under occupation, he explains, is partly to realize that his relatives can be arrested at any time for no obvious reason.
“There is a lot of fear right now due to climbing the situation in the West Bank,” he said with resignation.
“Each day, the occupation (the army) stops 30 to 40 or even 50 new prisoners.”