![Israeli forces detain a Palestinian child during a raid as the army restrict the movement of citizens by closing shops on the third day of Passover in Hebron, West Bank on April 16, 2025. [Mamoun Wazwaz - Anadolu Agency]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AA-20250416-37651213-37651191-ISRAELI_ARMY_CLOSES_HEBRON_CITY_CENTER_DURING_RAID-1-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1)
The Israeli occupation forces have arrested 550 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem during the month of April, including 14 women and 52 children, a Palestinian prisoners rights group has said.
The Beirut based Palestine Center for Prisoners’ Studies said in a statement that two prisoners have died in Israeli jails last month as a result of deliberate medical negligence.
According to the center, the Israeli occupation forces carried out mass arrest campaigns in April targeting dozens of Palestinians in various areas, most notably the villages of Kobar and al-Tabqa, the Dheisheh and al-Fawwar refugee camps, and the cities of Adh Dhahiriya, Qalqilya, and Jaba’, explaining that the detainees were held inside homes which had been turned into field interrogation centers.
The report noted that the Israeli authorities have also targeted women and children, including female university students, a journalist, and a female lawyer with her two daughters. The youngest child arrested was a 7-year-old boy, according to the same source.
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Regarding the health status of prisoners, the Center said it had documented the death of prisoners Nasser Radaideh, 49, from Bethlehem and Musab Adili, 20 from Nablus, as a result of medical negligence in Israeli prisons, bringing the number of martyrs from the prisoner movement to 302.
The month of April also witnessed an escalation in the number of administrative detention orders with 910 new and renewed administrative detention orders with the youngest detainee to receive such order being 14 years old from Ramallah.
The Center also revealed shocking testimonies from released prisoners from Gaza, confirming that they were subjected to severe physical torture and systematic starvation inside prisons, which led some of them to lose half their body weight.
The center accused the Israeli occupation authorities of attempting to assassinate leaders of the prisoner movement inside prisons through torture and starvation, most notably Abdullah Barghouti, Hassan Salama, Abbas al-Sayed, Muhammad al-Natsheh, and Muammar Shahrour, all of whom suffer from critical health conditions due to torture and neglect.
The center explained that also during April, the Israeli occupation released 73 detainees from the Gaza Strip including two women who had been forcibly disappeared before being released in deteriorating health conditions.
READ: Israel detained 1,200 Palestinian children in West Bank since October 2023: Rights groups