Israel has issued 729 new administrative detention orders in 2016

The Israeli regime has issued more than 700 administrative detention orders since the beginning of the current year, which has given Tel Aviv’s officials the right to keep Palestinians behind bars without charge or trial for months or even years.

Spokesman for the Palestinian Prisoners’ Center for Studies (PPCS), Riyad al-Ashqar, said on Friday that a total of 729 Palestinians have been subjected to the practice of administrative detention since early January, and the figure marks a 35-percent increase compared to the same period last year, when the number of administrative detention orders stood at 493, Arabic-language Palestine al-Yawm news agency reported.

The Palestinian official held ongoing tensions between Palestinian protesters and Israeli military forces across the occupied terrorists responsible for the high number of administrative detention orders.

The occupied territories have been the scene of heightened tensions since August 2015, when Israel imposed restrictions on the entry of Palestinian worshipers into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

Al-Aqsa Mosque is the third holiest site in Islam after Masjid al-Haram in Mecca and Masjid al-Nabawi in Medina.

The restrictions have enraged Palestinians, who are also angry at increasing violence by Israeli settlers frequently storming the al-Aqsa Mosque. The Palestinians say the Tel Aviv regime seeks to change the status quo of the compound.

More than 210 Palestinians, including women and children, have lost their lives at the hands of Israeli forces since the beginning of last October.

Ashqar said Israeli officials issued 117 administrative detention orders In January, 157 in February and 152 in March. They also sentenced 186 Palestinians to administrative detention in April and a further 117 so far in May.

He named 50-year-old Hamad Ahmed Abul Fannouneh, a resident of the southern West Bank city of al-Khalil (Hebron), as the oldest serving administrative detainees, whose jail term has been renewed eight times in a row and has been behind bars since July 7, 2013.

Ashqar also called on international institutions to intervene and put an end to Israel’s “criminal” practice of administrative detention.

It also urged the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority to take the matter to international courts of law and stop the Tel Aviv regime’s abuse of Palestinian rights.

The Commission of Detainees’ and Ex-Detainees’ Affairs announced in a report released on April 3 that six Palestinian minors are being held by the Israeli authorities under administrative detention.

Some prisoners have been held in administrative detention for up to eight, ten and eleven years without any charges brought against them.

There are reportedly more than 6,500 Palestinians held at Israeli jails. Hundreds of the inmates have been apparently incarcerated under the practice of administrative detention, which is a policy under which Palestinian inmates are kept in Israeli detention facilities without trial or charge.

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