Israeli Authorities or Cyber Police? Ola Haniyeh Arrested with no Charges
Prisoners’ Day is commemorated every year on April 17th. Today 1,600 Palestinian prisoners began an open-ended hunger strike that calls for better conditions in prison, including the right to family visits. Currently, there are over 4,500 prisoners behind Israeli bars, 203 of them being children and 6 women. Newly graduated student Ola Haniyeh is one of them.
In the early morning hours of Monday March 26th, a large force of Israeli soldiers surrounded the Haniyeh house in Al-Bireh, located in the heart of the West Bank’s capital city of Ramallah. After setting up a perimeter around the house, 12 well-armed soldiers kicked down the Haniyeh’s door and entered the home. “They broke the door. They didn’t knock. They didn’t ring. They broke the door and we found them in the middle of our bedroom,” says 26 year-old Dima Haniyeh. After confining Dima’s parents to their bedroom, the soldiers proceeded on to the next bedroom shared by Dima and her 22 year-old sister, Ola. Right of the bat, Dima recalls, it was clear the soldiers had an apparent interest in her young sister. “They wanted to search us both and they wanted Ola’s mobile phone and laptop.” A female soldier was brought in to search them both.