RAMALLAH
Israel has applied its "administrative detention" policy – by which it can hold detainees without charge for long periods – to most Palestinians detained in recent days as the search continues for three Jewish settlers who went missing last week in the Palestinian territories, a Palestinian rights group said Tuesday.
The latest raft of Israeli administrative detention orders comes as scores of Palestinian administrative detainees continue to wage a hunger strike they began weeks ago to protest the policy, which allows prisoners to be held without charge for renewable periods of up to six months.
"This [the latest detentions] comes as a blow to the international community, much of which has called for the release – or referral to trial – of administrative detainees who have been on hunger strike for nearly two months," read a statement issued by the Ramallah-based Palestinian Prisoner's Society.
Israel's so-called "administrative detention" policy has been applied to members of the Gaza-based Hamas movement – including lawmakers – arrested in the West Bank since the Israeli search operations began, according to the rights group.
Tension has run high in the Palestinian territories since three teenage Jewish settlers went missing late Thursday from the Jewish-only Gush Etzion settlement near the southern West Bank city of Hebron.
Israel has accused Gaza-based Hamas of kidnapping the three settlers, holding the West Bank-bank Palestinian Authority (PA) responsible for their safety.
Hamas, for its part, has dismissed the claim Hamas as "stupid."
In the days since the alleged kidnapping, Israeli security forces have detained scores of Palestinians – including leading Hamas members, lawmakers and former government ministers – in raids throughout the West Bank.
The Palestinian Prisoner's Society, for its part, has accused Israel of using the settlers' disappearance as a pretext for conducting a "wide-ranging arrest campaign" against Palestinians in the West Bank.
"The current campaign of arrests has nothing to do with the settlers' disappearance," the rights group said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu linked the alleged kidnapping to a recent reconciliation deal between Hamas and the PA's Fatah movement.
The deal, which Netanyahu has vocally opposed, saw the formation of a new Palestinian unity government and calls for legislative elections in the Palestinian territories later this year.
No Palestinian group has claimed responsibility for the alleged kidnapping.
Israeli administrative detention orders can be extended by up to five years by Israeli military courts.
According to an earlier estimate by the Palestinian Prisoners' Society, some 5200 Palestinians – including 191 in administrative detention – continue to languish in Israeli jails.
By Qais Abu Samra
www.aa.com.tr/en
