News / Palestine

Israel arrested nearly 600 Palestinians in January: Rights groups

Monday, 06 February 2017 10:03 AM [ Last Update: Monday, 06 February 2017 10:06 AM ]

Israeli forces arrest a Palestinian protester in the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem on January 26, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

Rights groups say the Israeli regime arrested nearly 600 Palestinians, including dozens of women and children, in the occupied West Bank and the blockaded Gaza Strip last month.

The figures were released on Sunday in a report compiled by the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights and Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association.

The report said some 128 children and 14 women were among the 550 detained in the West Bank, Jerusalem al-Quds and Gaza Strip in January.

According to the report, most of the arrests were reported in Jerusalem al-Quds, where 156 Palestinians were taken into custody.

The Israeli authorities also issued 91 administrative detention orders, the report said.

Ahmed Mubarak, a deputy in the Palestinian Legislative Council, was among those administratively detained, according to the report.

The rights institutions further noted that the new arrests put the number of Palestinians currently in Israeli jails at 7,000, among them 51 women, 300 children and 21 journalists.

The report added that the total number of administrative detainees hit 600 people.

Administrative detention is a sort of imprisonment without trial or charge that allows Israel to incarcerate Palestinians for periods of up to six months, which can be renewed an infinite number of times.

A member of the Israeli police stands guard at the Qalandia checkpoint between Jerusalem al-Quds and Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on December 13, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

Some prisoners have been held in administrative detention for up to eleven years.

Palestinian inmates regularly hold hunger strikes in protest at both the administrative detention policy and their harsh prison conditions.

The rights bodies further warned of the dangerous humanitarian conditions in Israeli jails, where the inmates are subject to mistreatment.

According to the report, the Israeli forces launched dozens of night raids to inspect the prisons last month, damaging the detainees’ personal belongings.

The continued medical negligence in Israeli jails, the increase in the number of administrative detentions, the arrest of children and women as well as imposing exorbitant fines against the detainees were also among Israel’s other violations in January, the report said.

The groups also urged the international community to force Israel to stop its continued violations of the Palestinian prisoner’s rights.

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