Israeli forces assaulting and arresting Palestinian youth near Damascus Gate since the beginning of Ramadan.
Qatar’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani and Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh discussed the targeted killings of Palestinian youth in Jenin, on Sunday during a meeting in Doha.
Hamas’s office said that the officials reviewed “the Zionist escalation in the occupied West Bank and the killings carried out by the occupation and targeting of many young men”.
This included the latest assault by the Israeli occupation forces in Jenin on Saturday, where three young Palestinian men were shot and killed by a special unit of the Israeli army.
Palestine’s news agency (WAFA) reported that Israeli forces prevented Palestinian ambulances from treating the men. The victims were identified as Khalil Tawalbeh, 24; Saeb Abahreh, 30; and Saif Abu Libdeh, 25.
The Israeli occupation forces have also continued to conduct mass arrests of Palestinians in the West Bank. The conditions of the detainees was amongst the issues discussed between Sheikh Mohammed and Haniyeh.
On Sunday, Israeli forces arrested five Palestinians in the occupied West Bank district of Ramallah after arresting 14 others in the same area on Friday.
According to the Palestinian Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, Addameer, there are currently 4,400 political prisoners in Israeli prisons, including 160 children.
Last year, Save the Children revealed that 81% of child prisoners endure physical beatings whilst 89% are subjected to verbal abuse.
Children face the harshest forms of torture under the apartheid state, where more than half of the prisoners are threatened with harm to their families by Israeli forces. As a result, the mental and physical health of child prisoners deteriorate in Israeli prisons.
Calls to release Palestinian prisoner Ahmed Manasra have recently been amplified by rights groups and on social media amidst serious concerns over his mental and physical health. Manasra was arrested at the age of 13 in 2015 and was convicted of two counts of attempted murder.
The ruling has been slammed by rights groups as unjust and cruel. The child was placed in solitary confinement and was forced to take unknown drugs as part of unethical field experiments carried out by the Zionist state.
Unlike some of its neighbours, Qatar has long opposed normalising with Israel as long as it continues its illegal occupation and human rights abuses of Palestinians.
Damascus Gate crackdowns
Israeli occupation forces have carried out mass crackdowns on Palestinians since the beginning of Ramadan near the Damascus Gate.
تغطية صحفية : “فيديو من اقتحام وزير خارجية الاحتلال “يائير لبيد” منطقة باب العامود بالقدس اليوم” pic.twitter.com/j1wfpmj7JS
— AlQastal القسطل (@AlQastalps) April 3, 2022
The protests were triggered by the storming of Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid of the Al Aqsa mosque, which was described as a provocative tour. Lapid promised Jewish settlers protection by spreading more occupation forces to protect them during their holidays.
WAFA reported that Israeli occupation forces detained 13 Palestinians on Sunday and injured at least 20 others at Damascus Gate, one of the main gates leading into Jerusalem’s Old City.
A child was arrested during the attacks as an elderly man was beat up by Israeli forces.
Muslim Palestinians gather in the area on Ramadan nights to perform the Taraweeh prayers and are routinely subjected to attacks by Israeli forces.
Similar attacks occurred last year, where Israeli forces violently attacked nation-wide protests against the forced dispossession of Palestinians from the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood.
The assaults were followed by violence against Palestinians and an 11-day offensive on the besieged Gaza strip. At least 260 Palestinians, including 66 children, were killed during the bombardment.
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