Israeli armed forces today abducted two Palestinian students outside Birzeit University, north of occupied Ramallah, WAFA reported.

Witnesses told WAFA that the armed soldiers were driving a van before attacking the two students. They fired a number of bullets in the air before driving away and taking them to an unknown destination.

The Quds Press News Agency quoted the head of Birzeit University’s Student Union, Ahmed Al-Ayesh, saying that an undercover Israeli force arrested Bassel Filian, a business and economics student, and Tawfiq Abu ‘Arqoub, an engineering student, while they were leaving the western entrance of the campus.

Al-Ayesh added that Abu ‘Arqoub is the university’s Islamic bloc coordinator, while Filian serves as the secretary of the specialisations committee in the Student Union.

He described the way the two students were arrested as being part of the continuous targeting by the Israeli authorities of Birzeit University’s student movements.

The Dean of Student Aaffairs, Mohammad Al-Ahmad, condemned what he described as a violation against students at Birzeit and in Palestine as a whole.

“The kidnapping violates all international laws and charters which deem violating academic facilities a crime,” he said.

Al-Ahmad called on the international community to condemn this crime and put an end to its arbitrary actions and disrespect of the basic rights of Palestinian people.

There have been several attempts to arrest Abu ‘Arqoub with Israeli forces storming his family home in Birzeit recently.