RAMALLAH, SANA – Israeli occupation forces have detained more than 18,500 Palestinians across the occupied West Bank, including Jerusalem, since the beginning of the ongoing aggression on Gaza in October 2023, according to a joint report released Sunday by the Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society, and Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association.
The report points to a sharp rise in detentions, with at least 570 Palestinian women detained – including those from the West Bank, Gaza (detained while in the West Bank), and Palestinian citizens of Israel. The figure does not include dozens of women detained directly from Gaza, whose numbers remain unconfirmed.
Detention of Palestinian children have also surged, with no fewer than 1,500 cases documented in the West Bank alone since the start of the Israeli assault. Meanwhile, over 194 journalists have been detained, 49 of whom are still behind bars.
The report documents widespread violations accompanying these detentions, including severe beatings, threats against detainees and their families, the use of hostages, and large-scale destruction of civilian property. Israeli forces have frequently looted homes, seizing vehicles, cash, and gold jewelry. Infrastructure, particularly in refugee camps in Tulkarm and Jenin, has also been systematically destroyed, alongside the demolition of homes belonging to detainees’ families.
Additionally, the report states that many detainees were taken from their homes, at military checkpoints, or were forced to surrender under pressure. Others were taken as hostages. The arrest campaigns have also been accompanied by extrajudicial killings, including some targeting relatives of detainees.
Since October 2023, at least 75 Palestinians have died in Israeli custody, including 46 from Gaza. Dozens more from Gaza are believed to have died under conditions of enforced disappearance, with Israeli authorities withholding their names and the circumstances of their deaths. Among those confirmed dead, Israel continues to withhold the bodies of 72 prisoners out of 83 announced martyrs.
These figures do not include the full number of detainees from Gaza, as Israel continues to enforce a policy of forced disappearance against them. Thousands have been detained, including Gaza laborers working in Israel with valid permits and hundreds of workers and patients from Gaza who were in the West Bank at the time of the war. Some of them have since been released, but many remain unaccounted for.
Source: WAFA
Amer DHawa
