Ramallah: 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 Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA, a joint report released by the Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society, and Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association highlights a significant increase in detentions. The report indicates that at least 570 Palestinian women have been detained, including those from the West Bank, Gaza, and Palestinian citizens of Israel. This figure excludes dozens of women directly detained from Gaza, whose numbers remain unconfirmed.
The report also reveals a surge in the detention of Palestinian children, with no fewer than 1,500 cases documented in the West Bank alone since the start of the Israeli assault. Additionally, over 194 journalists have been detained, with 49 still held in custody.
The report documents widespread violations during these detentions, such as severe beatings, threats against detainees and their families, and the use of hostages. Israeli forces have looted homes, seizing vehicles, cash, and gold jewelry. Infrastructure, especially in refugee camps in Tulkarm and Jenin, has been systematically destroyed, alongside the demolition of homes belonging to detainees’ families.
Many detainees were taken from their homes or at military checkpoints, and others were forced to surrender under pressure or taken as hostages. The arrest campaigns have been accompanied by extrajudicial killings, including some targeting detainees’ relatives.
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 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 exclude 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 during the war. Some have been released, but many remain unaccounted for.
