Heart Patient held in Detention Camp
Since 5am this morning the Israeli army has been conducting a massive campaign, arresting thousands of Palestinian civilians in the Ramallah area. All men between the ages of 15 and 50 years have been forced from their homes and held in a makeshift detention camp in a school football field in El-Bireh.

The Israeli army confiscated a UPMRC mobile clinic on its way to Ramallah hospital, carrying the patient Elias Khoury. Mohammad Sharif, the medic driving the mobile clinic van, and the patient were both arrested. Elias Khoury suffers from a heart condition and was being taken to Ramallah hospital for catheterization. A foreign volunteer who was in the mobile clinic van was forced out of the van and forced to walk away from the scene of the arrest. At the time of writing, the UPMRC medic, the patient whose condition is critical, and 20 other medical personnel from Ramallah hospital are being held prisoner at the detention camp in El-Bireh.

We urgently call upon the international community to take immediate action against this inhumane behavior on the part of the Israeli army and to demand the immediate release of these prisoners.

For more information contact Mustafa Barghouthi +972- (0) 50-254-218 and see www.palestinemonitor.org