"Adnan Ghaith was detained for Palestinian activity in Jerusalem, which is illegal," Israeli police spokesman told AFP.

Israel has detained Sunday the Palestinian Authority (PA) Governor of Jerusalem Adnan Ghaith over "illegal" activities and imprisoned him for the seventh time in the previous 18 months period.

"Adnan Ghaith was detained this morning for Palestinian activity in Jerusalem, which is illegal," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP.

Ghaith’s lawyer, Rami Othman, said his client, who was taken for questioning, was arrested primarily due to Palestinian activity related to the coronavirus outbreak.

The PA has a minister for Jerusalem affairs and a Jerusalem governor located in al-Ram, on the other side of an Israeli wall that separates the city and the occupied West Bank.

Ghaith’s arrest comes two days after Israeli forces arrested Friday Palestine’s Jerusalem Affairs Minister Fadi Al-Hadami for allegedly violating an Israeli ban on Palestinian activities in the occupied East Jerusalem.

The Jerusalem Affairs Ministry said in a statement that Israeli police raided the minister’s house in the Silwan neighborhood of Jerusalem and took him into custody.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed it in an illegal move never recognized by the international community.

It considers the entire city its capital, while the Palestinians see the eastern sector as the capital of their future state. The Jewish state bans all PA activities in the city.