Tel Aviv (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Palestinian media claimed on Tuesday that the Israeli army had arrested Tayseer Abu Sneineh, the mayor of Hebron, which is the biggest city in the West Bank, according to Al-Khalil Municipality. It was said that the army arrested the mayor and searched his home.
The army made widespread arrests on Tuesday, arresting Palestinian residents in different cities in the West Bank, including the mayor of Hebron, an official reported.
According to reports, Israeli soldiers detained 13 people in the Nablus governorate of the northern occupied West Bank and following an attack and beating by army forces, one Palestinian was brought to the hospital in Kafr Qalil, Nablus.
As per local reports, two other people were detained in the northern city of Qalqilya, and another was detained in Ramallah in the central West Bank. The Hebron municipality stated that Mayor Tayseer Abu Sneineh was detained early dawn when a large army force broke into his home and badly damaged everything in it.
What does Hebron municipality say about Israel’s actions?
“This brutal attack doesn’t only target the mayor but also targets the will of the people of Hebron and its elected institutions and constitutes a blatant attack on the democratic process and the right of our people to manage their affairs and serve their city with freedom and dignity,”
The municipality said in a statement.
The municipality council blamed the Israeli authorities entirely for the arrest of Abu Sneineh and urged international human rights organisations to take their legal and moral responsibilities to increase pressure (on Israel) to release the mayor immediately and to stop the rising (Israeli) violations against the leaders and people of the city.
How many Palestinians are currently detained in Israeli prisons?
After the initiation of the ongoing Palestine-Israel war following the attack by Hamas on October 7, 2023, about 18,000 Palestinians from the West Bank have been detained between October 2023 and August 2025. The imprisoned persons have included Palestinians mayors, activists, journalists, artists, medics, women, children and politicians.
Israel is currently detaining approximately 10,800 Palestinians in its prisons, according to official Palestinian sources. This includes about 450 children, 50 women, and 3,629 administrative detainees. According to sources, these figures do not account for the thousands of cases of enforced disappearance of detainees from Gaza.
