Palestinian security sources said the arrests took place in Hebron, Ramallah, Bethlehem and Qalqilyah.
Israeli media reported that the raids only targeted “wanted” Palestinian activists. The Israeli sources added that they were taken to unknown locations for questioning by the Israeli intelligence service Shin Bet.
On Monday, the Shin Bet asked the Israeli Knesset to extend a temporary order that allows the security service to detain Palestinian prisoners for four days without a hearing.
The Shin Bet's head of investigations told the Knesset's legislative committee that “the security situation in Israel has not changed over the past three years and there is therefore a need to extend the temporary order.”
He asked the committee to restore Section 5 of the temporary legislation, which was struck down by the Israeli High Court of Justice and had allowed the Shin Bet to hold hearings on prolonging detention without the suspect being present.
Israeli sources said that the law technically applies to all arrests in Israel and the West Bank but in practice is applied almost exclusively to Palestinian detainees.
“The work of the Shin Bet isn't carried out in the dark, but under the scrutiny of the judicial system, the state prosecution service and the attorney general.” the Shin Bet said in response to testimony before the committee by human rights groups, who claim the law harms prisoners' rights.
Leila Margalit, a lawyer for the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, said that “the fact that interrogation takes place without due procedure, and that a person is held under conditions which in themselves constitute a means of pressure, undermines fair judicial process and produces false confessions.”
