Day 49: Al-Aqsa Flood Operation in the city of Jerusalem
On the 49th day of “Al-Aqsa Flood” Operation, the humanitarian truce began in the Gaza Strip, according to which the first batch of the “exchange deal” between Israel and Hamas was completed, while the forces continued their siege imposed on Al-Aqsa Mosque and imposed strict restrictions on entry to it to perform Friday prayers, and continued the arrest campaigns and raids in Jerusalem.
Exchange deal
On the first day of the "humanitarian truce", the occupation authorities released 39 Palestinian prisoners, including women and children, and aid trucks loaded with fuel, cooking gas, food and medical supplies entered the Gaza Strip, while the Al-Qassam Brigades released 13 Israeli prisoners, 10 Thais and a Filipino.
The Wadi Hilweh Information Center - Jerusalem explained that the occupation authorities released today the female prisoners: Amani Al-Hashim, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison and was arrested in 2016, and Malak Salman, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison and has been detained since 2016, and Marah Bakir, who was sentenced to 8 years and a half in prison, who has been detained since 2015, and Nihaya Souwan, who has been sentenced to 3 and a half years in prison, and Zeina Abdo, who has been sentenced to 9 months in prison and has been detained since last September, and the prisoner Samira Al-Hirbawi, who has been detained since last July.
As for the procedures for releasing Jerusalemite female prisoners, they were similar for all families. The Wadi Hilweh Information Center - Jerusalem, quoting the families, explained that the families received a call from the intelligence in the morning hours, asking them to come to the “Room 4” center for investigation, “one person from each family”, and to bring his/her ID and mobile phone.
The families explained that the intelligence brought the families into the investigation center "each person individually", seized their identities and mobile phones, and informed them that the female prisoners would be released, under the conditions of "not holding a celebration or gathering, not raising flags and banners, and not setting off fireworks."
The residents added that after investigation, they were all detained together from noon until the evening, and they were prevented from moving or even going to the bathroom, drinking water, or eating. At approximately seven o’clock in the evening, each person was transferred to a private intelligence vehicle and forced to sit in it. The prisoners freed prisoners were taken to the vehicles and each family was taken home.
The families explained that while they were inside the intelligence vehicle, they were prevented from hugging the female prisoners, talking to them, or checking on them, and insults were directed at some of them.
As for the female prisoners, the releasing procedures were similar, as the rooms and departments were stormed and they were asked to prepare themselves within only 5 minutes, in order to include their names on the release lists, then they were transferred to the Al-Maskobyeh Center and from there to their homes.
The female prisoners spoke about the difficult detention conditions they had experienced since the seventh of last October, with storming the sections and rooms, assaulting them with beating, spraying them with tear gas and isolation, taking away clothes, blankets, and mattresses, and detaining them in large numbers inside one room, in addition to repeated raids into the sections, reducing the quantities of food, and forcing them to drink tap water that smells and tastes bad.
Continuous siege and suppression of prayers
For the seventh consecutive Friday, restrictions and procedures prevented worshipers from reaching Al-Aqsa Mosque to perform prayers, and the Islamic Endowments Department explained that 5,000 worshipers performed prayers in Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The Information Center explained that the forces were deployed since the early morning hours in the streets of Jerusalem and the neighborhoods surrounding the Old City, as well as at the gates of the Old City and Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The center added that the forces prevented young men from entering the mosque to perform prayers, and allowed a small number of elderly men and women to enter it.
The forces tried to prevent prayers at the thresholds of Al-Aqsa or in the streets leading to it, so they attacked young men in the areas of Lions Gate, Ras Al-Amoud and Salah Al-Din Street, by beating and pushing the worshippers, while large forces stormed the Wadi Al-Joz neighborhood minutes before the noon “call to prayer”, and threw gas bombs and sprayed wastewater in the streets to prevent prayers.
Despite the repression and persecution, prayers were held in the streets of the city, at the thresholds of Al-Aqsa, and on the roads leading to it.
Raids
The occupation forces stormed Jabal al-Mukabber, Beit Hanina, and Beit Safafa since the morning hours, photographed and toured the area, then stormed the homes of female prisoners Marah Bakir, Amani al-Hashim, Malak Salman, and Zeina Abdo.
With the release of the female prisoners, the forces tried to prevent access to the homes of the Bakir and Al-Hashim families.
The forces removed relatives and friends from the homes of Bakir and Al-Hashim, and allowed only family members to be there.
Arrests also continued in Jerusalem, and the Wadi Hilweh Information Center monitored the arrest of:
1. Abdul Rahman Al-Hashlamon
2. Musa Al-Julani
3. Qusai Sandouka
4. Aser Sandouka
5. Saleh Al-Qumbar
6. Jalal Al-Kurd
