Israeli occupation forces have arrested 3,750 Jerusalemites since U.S. President Donald Trump declared Jerusalem the capital of Israel on December 6, 2017.
The Prisoners of Palestine Center for Studies said in a press release that the arrests involved 1,070 children under the age of 18, and 171 arrests of women and girls, including minors, wounded, mothers and associations.
Riad al-Ashkar, media spokesman for the center, confirmed that the occupation authorities have stepped up their aggression against the residents of Jerusalem since the announcement of Trump, to force them to accept the decision, and not to give them a chance to catch their breath and prepare to face it.
He added that arrests in Jerusalem over the past two years have escalated on certain occasions, such as the events of the opening of the door of mercy to the worshippers, where dozens of them were arrested by national leaders and clerics, including the chairman of the Waqf Council Sheikh Abdul Azim Salhab, and the Deputy Director General of the Jerusalem Endowments, Sheikh Najah Bekirat.
The arrests were distributed to all villages, towns and walks of life in Jerusalem, where Issawiya occupied the largest share of arrests, reaching 1,400 arrests, followed by The Shuafat area with 498, Then Silwan 504, Old Jerusalem 429, al-Aqsa Mosque 344, and the rest from different villages and towns.
He pointed out that the occupation targets the detention and domestic detention of the category of underage children, where the arrests of children 1070 children under the age of 18, as well as the targeting of the group of children under the age of 12, where reached 74 children.
He said the occupation continued to target Women of Jerusalem, especially the Al-Aqsa Mosque, in order to deter them from protecting the holy sites and defending al-Aqsa.
He said 171 arrests of women and girls in Jerusalem were reported, the majority of whom were released in exchange for domestic detention, or for various periods.
Al-Ashkar said the occupation has also stepped up the issuance of domestic detention orders, the imposition of a penalty of removal from homes, and heavy fines on most of the detainees who brought them before the courts, whether they are sentenced to actual imprisonment or a fine only in exchange for their release.
The center monitored more than 200 decisions of domestic detention over the past two years, indicating that these decisions are an alternative to imprisonment, aimed at home stay and restricting the freedom of people, especially children, as well as imposing the penalty for the removal of more than 66 Jerusalemites, the majority of whom are minors.
He noted that the 53-year-old Maqdisi prisoner Aziz Musa Aweysat, from Jabal Al-Mukaber, was elevated in May 2018 as a result of a barbaric attack in The Ishal prison from the special units of the Prison Administration with batons and kicks and more than once on his head, neck and abdomen.
