Israeli forces arrest 16 Palestinians across West Bank

Israeli military forces have reportedly arrested 16 Palestinians during separate operations across the occupied West Bank. 

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club said in a statement that 15 of the arrests were made after Israeli forces broke into dozens of homes in the cities of Nablus, Jenin, Tulkarem, Qalqilya and al-Khalil (Hebron). 

The statement further noted that Israeli forces also detained a 15-year-old Palestinian girl, identified as Hadiya Ereinat, after she allegedly stabbed an Israeli policeman in the eastern West Bank town of al-Auja.

The Israeli public radio reported that the police officer was lightly wounded in the incident.

Meanwhile, Palestinian officials say Israeli forces have closed down the entrances to two villages on the way to Nablus after two Israeli soldiers were injured in an alleged stabbing attack on a guard post at the Har Bracha settlement, located in the northern West Bank, on Wednesday evening. Israeli army forces are reportedly carrying out a manhunt in the area in search of the two Palestinians.

16 Palestinian children killed by Israelis since January

Defense for Children International (DCI), an international movement for children's rights, also said on Thursday that Israeli military forces have shot and killed at least 16 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip since the beginning of the current year amid ongoing tensions in the Palestinian territories.

DCI had said in a February report that at least 49 Palestinian children had lost their lives ever since the current uprising against the Israeli regime sparked off in October last year.

The international movement underscored that the Israeli forces' "repeated killing and shooting of children...  is considered a form of extrajudicial killing."

The occupied Palestinian territories have been the scene of heightened tensions triggered by Israel’s imposition in August of restrictions on the entry of Palestinian worshipers into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East al-Quds.

Al-Aqsa Mosque is the third holiest site in Islam after Masjid al-Haram in Mecca and Masjid al-Nabawi in Medina.

The restrictions have enraged Palestinians, who are also angry at increasing violence by Israeli settlers frequently storming the al-Aqsa Mosque. The Palestinians say the Tel Aviv regime seeks to change the status quo of the compound.

More than 190 Palestinians, including children and women, have lost their lives at the hands of Israeli forces since the beginning of last October.

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