There has also been a marked escalation in administrative detention, a policy whereby detainees are held without charge or trial.
Israeli occupation forces have detained 540 Palestinians across the occupied West Bank during August, including 49 children and 19 women, according to Palestinian prisoner institutions.
This brings the total number of detentions in the West Bank since the onslaught on Gaza on October 7, 2023, to over 19,000, including more than 590 women and around 1,550 children.
Palestinian detainee affairs organizations, the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society, and Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, reported that Israeli occupation forces carried out 540 detentions in the West Bank,… pic.twitter.com/J4ewt9iqdF
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The figure includes individuals who were later released and excludes those detained in the Gaza Strip, which is estimated to be thousands, the Palestinian Commission of Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, and Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association said in a statement on Sunday.
Systematic Crimes
The data was published in a monthly bulletin by these organizations that monitor arrest campaigns and “the escalating systematic crimes accompanying them,” the statement added.
Israeli occupation forces continue detaining and abusing dozens of residents west of Tulkarm in the West Bank, including vehicle owners and shopkeepers, taking them to an unknown location
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According to the report, systematic patterns have accompanied these detentions, including violent night raids, destruction of property, physical assaults on detainees and their families, death threats, and the seizure of money, jewelry, and electronics, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
The report stated that families are often held as hostages during raids, and field interrogations are frequently conducted in homes or makeshift military posts.
Illegal Settler Violence
Violence by illegal Israeli Jewish settlers has also played a role in expanding the scope of detentions, especially in villages and areas under intensified settler activity and occupation, the report added. Dozens have been detained in connection with confrontations with the settlers.
The report also noted a marked escalation in administrative detention, a policy whereby detainees are held without charge or trial.
The West Bank: Beyond the Media’s Glare, Human Rights Violations Persist
This policy is being “used to undermine political, social, and cultural life, particularly targeting students, journalists, human rights defenders, and former detainees.”
Administrative detainees now make up more than 32 percent of the total number of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, including women and children, the report stated.
The prisoner groups also pointed out that around 90 percent of appeals and petitions against administrative detention orders have been rejected by Israeli military courts since the beginning of the Gaza onslaught, “suggesting the judiciary’s role as a key tool in legitimizing and perpetuating this form of arbitrary detention,” WAFA reported.
(PC, WAFA)
