22 March 2018•Update: 22 March 2018
By Said Amouri
JERUSALEM
Israeli police at dawn Thursday entered a Palestinian hospital in East Jerusalem where they detained an injured 14-year-old Palestinian child, according to an Israeli police statement.
“During the night, a 14-year-old boy attempted to throw a Molotov cocktail in East Jerusalem,” the statement read.
“During the attempt, the Molotov cocktail went off in his hand, causing his injury,” it added.
According to the police, Israeli forces detained the boy from East Jerusalem’s Al-Makassed Hospital, later taking him to an Israeli hospital for treatment.
Roughly 6,400 Palestinians are currently being held in Israeli prisons, including dozens of women and scores of children, according to Palestinian figures.
About 450 of these are being held under what Israel calls "administrative detention" where they face neither trial nor charge.
West Bank raids
In a related development, the Israeli army rounded up 23 Palestinians in overnight raids carried out late Thursday night across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, according to Palestinian activists.
“Dozens of Israeli soldiers backed by a military helicopter stormed the Shuafat refugee camp [in East Jerusalem] and raided a number of Palestinian homes,” local activist Thaer Fasfus told Anadolu Agency.
“During the raid, the Israeli military detained 17 Palestinians and took them into custody for interrogation,” he said.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces raided several Palestinian homes in the West Bank cities of Tulkarem and Qalaqiliya, where they detained five people, the Palestinian Prisoners Society, an NGO, said in a statement.
“Another one was detained in the town of Qabatia near the city of Jenin east of Jerusalem,” the NGO added.
The Israeli army frequently carries out sweeping arrest campaigns in the occupied West Bank on the pretext of searching for “wanted” Palestinians.
