By Qais Abu Samra and Betul Yilmaz
RAMALLAH, Palestine/ISTANBUL (AA) - The Israeli army rounded up 21 Palestinians, including a Hamas leader, in military raids across the occupied West Bank on Monday, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office said.
In a statement, the office said Jamal al-Taweel, a Hamas leader in Ramallah, and the former mayor of Al-Bireh city in the central West Bank were detained by Israeli forces.
Taweel was one of Hamas' candidates for the 2021 parliamentary elections which were blocked by Israel.
He was exiled to southern Lebanon in 1992 for a year, along with other leaders from Hamas and Islamic Jihad group, before he returned to Ramallah in 1993. He was repeatedly arrested by Israel ever since.
The media office also said that 20 more Palestinians were detained in the cities of Hebron, Bethlehem, Jericho, Nablus, and Tulkarem on Monday.
More than 10,000 Palestinian prisoners, including children and women, are currently held in Israeli prisons, where they reportedly face torture, starvation, and medical neglect, resulting in the deaths of many, according to Palestinian and Israeli human rights and media reports.
Israeli attacks have escalated across the occupied West Bank since October 2023, killing more than 1,059 Palestinians, and injuring 10,300 others, according to Palestinian figures.
In a landmark opinion last July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.