Israel Army Arrests Obayat Family Members in Bethlehem, Palestinians Say
(AWP) - Several members of the Obayat family in the Wadi Shahin area of Bethlehem, southern Jerusalem, said on Monday that Israeli army forces conducted a large-scale raid and arrest campaign against several young men from the family with no reason given.
One family member said the main detainee for whom the Israeli army launched this campaign is a child.
“The Israeli army’s raid on houses was unjustifiable. There is nothing but hatred behind this campaign,” said Mazen Obayat, the paternal uncle of detainee Hussein Obayat.
“He is a child, anyway. What could he have done to warrant such a major campaign against him?” he asked.
He said that the Israeli forces deliberately destroyed everything in their way in the houses they raided.
Mazen Obayat said, “Hussein was detained along with another family member, Laith Obayat. Hussein Obayat is the son of the late Atef Obayat [a leading member of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, who was assassinated by the army in Bethlehem in 2001]. They wreaked havoc on these houses. Even the cars were not spared.”
Footage captured by the Arab World Press (AWP) during the detention campaign showed Israeli soldiers and military vehicles patrolling the streets of the area and chasing a car, apparently belonging to a detainee, who tried to flee but ended up crashing into rocks.
The Palestinian news agency WAFA said on Monday that the Israeli forces detained four young people from the city of Bethlehem.
WAFA quoted security sources as saying that Israeli troops stormed the area of Wadi Shahin in central Bethlehem, raiding the house of [the late] Atef Obayat and detaining his son Hussein.
The sources added that Israeli army forces detained three young people from the area – Ahmed Nidal Obayat, Laith Suleiman Obayat and Omar Khaled Ayyad – after raiding and searching their homes.