Israeli soldiers forcibly detain a Palestinian minor in an area of the occupied West Bank (File photo)
Ramallah, December 13 (RHC)-- Israeli forces have arrested at least 12,100 Palestinians across the occupied West Bank since the regime waged a genocidal military campaign against the besieged Gaza Strip in October last year, a Palestinian prisoners advocacy groups say.
The Palestinian Prisoners Club said in an updated report on Friday that a majority of the arrests took place in the governorates of al-Khalil and occupied al-Quds.
More than 10,000 administrative detention orders were issued during that period, it said. The detainees included more than 440 women and 795 children.
The regime forces have also arrested 141 journalists, of whom 59 remain in detention, including five women and 33 journalists from Gaza. Of those detained, 11,000 people are held in administrative detention without trial or charge.
Under its policy of administrative detention, the occupying regime detains Palestinians without trial or charge for up to six months; a period which can be extended for an indefinite number of times.
The figure does not include Palestinians detained in Gaza, which are estimated in the thousands.
The ongoing arrest campaigns are accompanied by escalating abuse and severe beatings, and verbal and physical threats against detainees and their families, prisoners’ rights group said.
The abusive methods include sabotage and destruction of citizens’ homes, as well as the confiscation of personal vehicles, cash, and jewelry, the organization added. Detainees were also used as human shields, while their families were held as hostages for periods.
In addition to the arrest campaigns, the Prisoners Club said the regime forces carried out field executions, including against family members of the prisoners. Israel continues to withhold the bodies of 47 Palestinian prisoners who died in its jails since the start of the war on Gaza.
In recent years, the Israeli military has conducted regular raids in the West Bank, which have escalated with the beginning of the war on Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023. Palestinians have also been violently attacked by illegal Israeli settlers.
At least 809 Palestinians have since been killed and over 6,450 others injured by Israeli army fire in the occupied territory, according to the Health Ministry.
In July, the International Court of Justice declared that Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land had been "illegal" and demanded the evacuation of all existing settlements in the West Bank and East al-Quds.
Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas waged the surprise Operation al-Aqsa Flood against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime's decades-long campaign of bloodletting and devastation against Palestinians.
The regime’s bloody onslaught on Gaza has so far killed at least 44,875 Palestinians, mostly women and children. Thousands more are also missing and presumed dead under rubble.
[ SOURCE: PRESS TV and NEWS AGENCIES ]
