The UN expresses its concern about the “political arrests” by the Palestinian Authority

July 19 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The United Nations expressed its concern on Tuesday over the “political arrests” carried out by the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.

“We are aware of this and we always express our concern about the arrests of people for raising their voices or for exercising freedom of expression,” said the spokesman for the UN Secretary General, Stéphane Dujarric, after a question about it at a conference. press.

The Palestinian Authority Police released on Sunday the journalist Akil Auaudé, detained last week in Beitunia, near Ramallah, after posting a video on social media in which he criticized the security forces’ assertions about the non-existence of political arrests in West Bank, according to the Quds News portal.

Even the Islamic Jihad group has denounced the arrest of several of its members in operations carried out by the Palestinian security forces in the West Bank; Among the detainees are members of the Jenin Battalion, who confronted the Israeli Army during its operation in the city in early July, the largest since the end of the Second Intifada nearly two decades ago.

For his part, the governor of Jenin, Akram Rayub, has reported that the arrests took place after an attack against a police station in the town of Yaba that resulted in the burning of part of the facilities and a police vehicle. Thus, he has said that those responsible were arrested “without taking into account political motives or affiliations to any organization.”

The city of Jenin has been at the epicenter of an uptick in violence in recent months amid doubts about the Palestinian Authority’s ability to assert its authority in the area, where groups like Islamic Jihad have strengthened their position.