Israeli military forces have arrested a high-ranking leader of the Palestinian Hamas resistance movement during a raid in the southern part of the occupied West Bank, in the latest upsurge of violence in the region.

Sheikh Rizq Rajoub’s arrest came eight months after his last release from Israeli prisons, where he spent 19 months in administrative detention. In total, Rajoub has spent more than 28 years in Israeli custody.

In 2018, he refused to be deported to Sudan after being given two options, either to be deported outside Palestine or to serve an administrative detention sentence.

There are reportedly more than 7 000 Palestinians held in Israeli jails. Hundreds of inmates have been incarcerated under so-called administrative detention, without trial or charge.