The number of Palestinian detainees held by Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank has reached record levels since the commencement of hostilities on Gaza on October 7th. Israeli figures released on Tuesday show a rise in the number of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails to 8600, including those detained since the outbreak of war on the Gaza Strip nearly three months ago.
The Israeli human rights organization HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual reported that by January 2024, Israel is holding 2114 sentenced prisoners, and 2534 in administrative detention.
The center highlighted that among those detained in Israeli prisons are 3291 under administrative detention without trial. Israel is also holding 661 individuals classified as 'unlawful combatants', who were detained since October 7th within the environs of the Gaza Strip and inside the sector itself.
The data is based on the Israeli Prison Service records.
According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the number of detainees from the Gaza Strip in Israeli prisons has increased by 150% compared to the previous month.
Mid-last month, Rami Abdu, founder of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, based in Geneva, reported that Israeli forces had arrested at least 900 Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip. The monitor disclosed that most of the detainees from Gaza are held at the Zikim military base.
The observatory pointed out that there is no precise count of detainees from Gaza due to the policy of enforced disappearance practiced by Israel and the difficulty in receiving reports from the Gaza Strip because of the dispersion of residents and the near-permanent disconnection of communication and internet services. However, initial estimates indicate more than 3,000 arrests, including at least 200 women and children.
Terrifying Arrest Campaign
Associated Press reported on the "terrifying arrest campaigns" carried out by the Israeli army against Palestinians in northern Gaza, forcing men to strip down to their underwear before some were transported to the Beach detention camp. Detainees have spent hours, and in some cases days, suffering from hunger and cold.
The report reveals that the Israeli army detained hundreds of Palestinians across northern Gaza Strip, separated families, with human rights activists, shocked relatives, and detainees themselves reporting having been blindfolded, tied up, and herded onto trucks. Some say they were transported to the detention camp in an undisclosed location, almost bare and with little water.
Meanwhile, the number of Palestinian detainees in the occupied West Bank has increased to 4695 since the Al-Aqsa Flood operation on October 7th, according to human rights reports.
The National Campaign to Retrieve the Bodies of Martyrs (informal) has clarified that Israeli authorities are currently withholding 450 Palestinian bodies in the occupation's cemeteries and morgues, including 256 martyrs in the Cemeteries of Numbers, and 194 martyrs since the resumption of the withholding policy in 2015.
The campaign noted that 18 of the withheld bodies belong to prisoners who died within Israeli jails, 21 children under the age of 18, 5 women, and 52 bodies from the Gaza Strip, preceding the October 7th, 2023 onset of the war on Gaza.
Since launching its devastating war on the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army intensified its operations in the West Bank, resulting in hundreds of deaths and thousands of detainees, alongside the destruction of infrastructure across several areas.
