PA condemns sweeping raids in Itamar investigation

[azurnoir]

The statement was issued the day an estimated 100 women, many in their 60s, were taken forcibly from their homes in the village, along with an unknown number of men, and subjected to DNA testing at a nearby military base. The mass round up was the fourth, and largest such act targeting the villagers.

Khatib said that the Palestinian government had contacted several international institutions with influence on Israel, asking them to put pressure on the latter to end these abuses, carried out as part of an investigation into the stabbing deaths of five settlers, including two children and an infant, in the Itamar settlement on 11 March. Details of the investigation remain under and Israeli gag-order.

Head of the Awarta village council Qais Awad told Khatib that all those taken by Israeli forces had been transported to the Huwwara military base given DNA samples, fingerprints and some were forced to sign papers written in Hebrew, without understanding the content.

Awad said all of the women were released, but that 50 men are still in detention.

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