Rights center: Israel abducted 600 Palestinians in West Bank, Al-Quds in July
The Palestine Center for Prisoners Studies documented 600 abducts carried out by Zionist regime’s occupation authorities across the occupied West Bank and Al-Quds during July, including 55 children and 14 women and girls, bringing the total number of arrests since Oct. 7, 2023, to 24,600.
In a statement issued Sunday, the center said Zionist regime’s occupation forces continued carrying out mass arrest campaigns in Palestinian villages, refugee camps, and towns. The raids involved storming homes, destroying their contents, detaining Palestinians inside homes that were confiscated after their owners were expelled, and subjecting detainees to hours of field interrogations before most were released after being beaten, humiliated, and threatened.
The center accused Zionist regime’s authorities of pursuing a systematic policy of exhausting Palestinian human resources in the occupied West Bank by arresting hundreds of Palestinians every month and subjecting hundreds more, mostly young people, to field interrogations as part of a policy of collective punishment and increasing pressure on the Palestinian population.
According to the center, the July arrests included 55 children under the age of 18. Some were released after hours or days of interrogation, while others were transferred to detention centers, with several placed under administrative detention without charge.
The center also reported the arrest of 14 women and girls.
The center said Israeli authorities issued more than 500 administrative detention orders during July, including both new orders and renewals, without filing charges and based on recommendations by Zionist regime’s Shin Bet security agency.
It also reported that Israeli authorities placed Mohammad Al-Madani from Nablus under administrative detention instead of releasing him after he completed a 12-year prison sentence. Similar orders were issued against Sidqi Mar’i from Jenin after he completed a 40-month sentence, and Eyad Fuqaha from Tulkarem after completing a six-month sentence. Administrative detention orders were also issued against female detainees Lama Khater, Raghad Al-Fanni, Malak Mar’i, and Shaimaa Khazem.
The center further reported that Zionist regime’s authorities released 136 Palestinian detainees from the Gaza Strip during the same period after varying periods of detention, including 40 Palestinian workers from the occupied West Bank who had been arrested before the outbreak of the war. It said a number of those released were suffering from severe physical and psychological conditions resulting from torture and starvation, requiring hospitalization for medical treatment.
The center also said Israeli forces arrested five Palestinian fishermen while they were working off the coast of the Gaza Strip.
It further revealed that Palestinian militias cooperating with Zionist regime’s occupation authorities detained dozens of Palestinians from eastern and northern Gaza and the southern part of the Strip after infiltrating displacement areas west of the so-called “Yellow Line” under the protection of Israeli aircraft.