The Israeli army arrested Thursday over a hundred women in a Palestinian town near Nablus, West Bank, as part of the investigation into the murder of a family of Jewish settlers, local officials said.
The women, some elderly, were placed in a military camp near Awarta where their fingerprints were found, and most of them were later released, according to an AFP journalist.
Hundreds of Israeli soldiers penetrated Awarta in the night and imposed a curfew before stopping these women, told AFP the head of the municipal council of the locality Tayis Awwad.
The soldiers conducted in the night raids on the premises, he added, citing officials of the Palestinian security services.
The Israeli army arrested Tuesday a forty Awarta Palestinians for questioning.
Israeli troops entered regularly and massively Awarta since the massacre of 11 March in which a family of the neighboring Israeli settlement of Itamar, parents and their three children including a baby, were slaughtered in their sleep.
The Israeli army imposed last week including a curfew for five days Awarta following the killings, attributed to Palestinians, whose perpetrators have so far not been identified.
