RAMALLAH – Israeli security forces Monday arrested 10 Palestinians in the West Bank including a Palestinian who fired at an Israeli military post near the southern city of Bethlehem. The Israeli Army Radio said that the Palestinian was arrested after he fired at a security post in Kibbutz Migdal Oz in Gush Etzion settlement bloc to the south of Bethlehem. No injuries were reported. The report said that the man was found in possession of an improvised weapon. The development comes two days after Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian man in south Mount Hebron. The Israeli army claimed that the man attempted to enter Israel illegally by breaching the separation wall in the area. Meanwhile, Palestinian security sources said that the Israeli security forces arrested nine Palestinians in the governorates of Bethlehem, Nablus, Hebron and Jenin under the pretext that they were “wanted” for the Israeli internal intelligence Shin Bet. The Palestinian sources said that the Israeli soldiers thoroughly searched the houses of the residents before arresting them. They were taken to unknown locations for questioning by agents of Shin Bet. An unnamed Israeli security official said last week that that Israel was stepping up arrests of Hamas members and other anti-Israel activists in the West Bank in order to preempt a possible Palestinian uprising. The official reportedly said that Israel was trying to prevent a flare-up from turning into a mass uprising against Israel. According to Israeli media reports, the flames of unrest in the West Bank surfaced following the UN recognition of a nonmember observer state of Palestine in November. According to the recent Palestinian statistics, Israel is holding 4,700 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. Also in the West Bank, the Israeli Civil Administration razed three agricultural structures in Khirbet al-Hathalein, to the south of Hebron, and in Hewara, to the south of Nablus. Palestinian sources said that the structures include a corrugated iron roofed dwelling, a sheep barn and two rooms. The sources said that the structures were demolished under the pretext that they were illegally built in Area C, an area Palestinians want to be part of their future state. According to the Oslo Accords, Area A is under Palestinian administrative and security control, Area B under Palestinian administrative control but under Israeli security one, the Area C is under full Israeli control. Area C, which today constitutes about 60 percent of West Bank land, is a geographic area created in negotiations between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1995.
