Israeli police plan arrests of hundreds of Palestinian-Israelis following Gaza ceasefire

Israeli police have drawn up plans to detain hundreds of Palestinian citizens of Israel over protests, following the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli state broadcaster Kan announced on Sunday.

In recent weeks hundreds of Palestinian-Israelis protested as Israel prepared to forcibly expel Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah district.

Israeli forces also carried out a campaign of harassment and intimidation at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, and later launched a deadly assault on the Gaza Strip.

Israeli police and far-right Israeli Jews also attacked protests by Palestinian citizens of Israel.

Kan TV quoted sources in the Israeli police and the internal security ministry saying that Israeli reserve army forces and Border Guards would carry out a campaign to "impose order and implement the law" throughout areas where Palestinian-Israelis are concentrated.

The sources said they would focus on Bedouin towns and villages in the Galilee region and the Naqab (Negev) Desert, saying that the situation there was "highly dangerous" and needed "immediate and firm action".

Over the past two weeks, Israeli police arrested 1,550 people in connection with the recent confrontations with Palestinian citizens of Israel, according to the sources, charging 150 of them.

The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported that police had drawn up a list of 500 Palestinian-Israeli "criminal elements" who would be arrested in connection with "riots".

Palestinian-Israeli human rights activists accused Israeli authorities of carrying out a "revenge" operation after the widespread protests.

Hassan Jabareen, the director of Adalah, an NGO which works for Palestinian-Israeli rights, told Arab 48: "The goal of this campaign of detentions is to take revenge on Palestinian citizens [of Israel] for their recent national and political positions and the police have proclaimed their terrorist aim – to deter and frighten them."

He added that Israeli police were carrying out operations at night and storming homes in order to terrorise Palestinian citizens of Israel.

In Jerusalem and surrounding areas, Israeli police carried out a wave of arrests, detaining over 30 people as of Monday morning, The New Arab’s Arabic-language service reported,

Israeli forces set up checkpoints on all the roads leading from the West Bank to Jerusalem, detaining a number of people.

Nasser Qaus, the head of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, previously told The New Arab’s Arabic service that Israel had arrested 2,000 Palestinian Jerusalemites since last April, saying that some had been beaten and abused in custody.

At least nine Palestinians were also detained by Israeli forces in the West Bank.

At least 248 Palestinians, including 66 children, were killed in Israel’s recent assault on the Gaza Strip which ended on Friday. Another 31 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank over the same period.