By Xinhua,
Gaza : Israeli forces stepped up random detentions of Palestinians in West Bank and Gaza Strip, Hamas-led ministry of prisoners’ affairs said on Monday.
In a new report issued on Monday, the ministry said the Israeli troops arrested more than 2,700 Palestinians since the beginning of this year, about 600 of them were seized during raids in Gaza Strip. Of the arrested, 255 were children aged under 18.
Since the start of the second Palestinian Intifada in 2000, a total of 7,000 children have been arrested, according to the report.
As a result of the increasing arrests, some 11,700 Palestinian inmates are now held in 28 crowded prisons and detention facilities.
The Israeli army carried out almost daily raids in West Bank cities and villages. In Gaza Strip, Israel often sends troops to border areas, where they arrest people living by the security fence that separates Israel and the Hamas-ruled enclave.
In June 2006, three Palestinian factions, including an Hamas offshoot, kidnapped an Israeli soldier in a cross-border raid. The corporal Gilad Shalit is still held hostage in Gaza and Hamas demands to exchange him for a number of Palestinian prisoners.
Shalit’s case blocks Egyptian efforts to secure a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip as Israel insists on retrieving Shalit under the truce deal while Hamas says the soldier’s case must be handled separately from the ceasefire.