RAMALLAH: On Thursday night an Israeli military court extended the extrajudicial detention of Palestinian youth activist Hassan Karajah for an additional 12 days, Al-Akhbar English reports. On early Wednesday morning some 20 Israeli soldiers launched a raid on his home in Saffa, a village near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, arresting Karajah, confiscating three computers, and performing “a partial strip search on the household's females," Al-Akhbar said. In a press release Addameer Prisoner Support Network said that the raid lasted around three hours and that soldiers “photographed documents, letters, family photos, and awards." Karajah, who is presently being held in the Jamaleh Interrogation Center near Jenin, works as a youth coordinator for Stop the Wall, a grassroots Palestinian activist organization. He is in involved in a number of other organizations, such as Arab Thought Forum and the Handalah Cultural Center. He is also a vocal supporter of the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Israeli authorities have yet to charge Karajah, who is also being denied family visits, according to Addameer. Soldiers “ordered the men to go to the TV room, and the women to a separate room," Mohammad Karajah, Hassan's brother, said in a Youtube interview. “They asked us to be searched and to have us bring our identification cards. They also asked us to be strip searched, but we rejected that. They brought electric machines and searched us again with them," he added. “A special unit of Israeli soldiers entered my seven-year-old sister Baghdad's room while she was sleeping, and instead of waking her up, they were wearing face masks with guns... and she was completely taken by surprise to see this sight." Karajah's arrest comes as Addameer marks a sharp uptick in Palestinians detained by Israel. As of January 1, Israeli prisons hosted 4,743 Palestinian prisoners, compared to 4,656 in December. 178 of those presently in detention are administrative detainees, held with neither trial nor charge. An additional 193 are children.
