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Report: Israel detained 388 Palestinians in June

July 17, 2017 at 9:41 am

Image of Israeli soldiers arresting a Palestinian on 31 May 2015 [Nedal Eshtayah/Apaimages]

Israeli forces detained 388 Palestinians, including 70 minors, across the occupied Palestinian territories in June, rights groups revealed yesterday.

According to the information gathered by Addameer, the Al-Mezan Centre for Human Rights, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society, and the Palestinian Committee of Prisoners’ Affairs, 126 of the imprisoned Palestinians were from occupied East Jerusalem, 261 were residents of the occupied West Bank and one was from the besieged Gaza Strip.

Earlier this month, the Palestinian Committee of Prisoners’ Affairs reported that at least 35 Palestinian minors who were detained in June were being held in Israel’s Ofer prison. They had been fined 38,000 shekels ($10,740) in total by Israeli military courts.

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Yesterday’s report estimated that a total of 6,300 Palestinians were currently imprisoned by Israel, including 300 minors and 486 Palestinians held under Israel’s contested policy of administrative detention – internment without trial or charges.

The joint statement went on to add that 61 administrative detention orders were issued in June – 19 new orders and 42 renewals.

The report estimated that 11 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council were held by Israel as of 11 July 11, including MP Khalida Jarrar who was detained on 2 July before being sentenced to six months in administrative detention by an Israeli court.

The report denounced “an ongoing Israeli pattern of violations of the principles laid down in [international human rights legal] conventions” regarding the rights of prisoners, notably through its use of torture, ill-treatment and administrative detention.

Israeli] authorities continue to use psychological and physical methods and forms of torture and ill-treatment during interrogation… stress positions, shouting, insults and humiliation, lengthy hours of interrogation, threats of arrests of family members, sleep deprivation, denial of access to lawyers or imprisonment in an interrogation centre lacking the minimum conditions for human life, in order to pressure [Palestinians] with a view toward extracting a confession in order to secure a subsequent conviction

the report lamented.

Addameer has estimated that some 20 percent of Palestinians – and 40 per cent of Palestinian men – have been detained by Israel at some point in their lives.