Palestinian governor of Jerusalem arrested by Israel authorities

The Palestinian governor of Jerusalem and the secretary of Fatah were arrested as part of sweeping dawn raids on Palestinian homes.

MENA

2 min read

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14 October, 2019

Adnan Ghaith was released from Israeli detention in December 2018 [Getty]

Israeli forces arrested the Palestinian governor of Jerusalem Adnan Ghaith on Monday after carrying out a dawn raid at his home in Silwan, occupied East Jerusalem.

Shadi Mutour, the secretary of the Fatah party, was also detained in a wave of raids by Israeli forces on Palestinian homes on Monday morning.

Pictures emerged on social media showing heavily armed Israeli soldiers arresting Ghaith inside his home.

The Palestinian Commission of Detainees' Affairs released a statement condemning the repeated arrests of Ghaith and Mutour.

The reason for the arrests remains unclear as Israeli police are yet to issue an official statement.

Ghaith was last detained in February for a day, and before that in two separate indicents between October and December 2018.

His previous arrest came after Israeli authorities banned him from entering the occupied West Bank.

Israel occupied east Jerusalem in the 1967 war and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community.

It considers the entire city under its sovereignty, while the Palestinians see the eastern sector as the capital of their future state.

Palestinian Authority activities are barred from Jerusalem by Israel.

As a result, the PA has a minister for Jerusalem affairs and a Jerusalem governor located in al-Ram, just on the other side of Israel's separation wall from Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank.