Over 600 Palestinians detained by Israel in West Bank raids last month: Advocacy group

Israeli forces rounded up 630 Palestinians in military raids across the occupied West Bank in July as part of escalating arrest campaigns since the start of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, a prisoners’ rights group said Tuesday, Anadolu reports.

Women, children and former prisoners were among those detained in the Israeli raids, the Palestinian Prisoner Society said in a statement.

The group said the latest wave of arrests brought the number of Palestinians detained since the Gaza war in October 2023 to more than 25,000 people.

“The arrest campaigns were accompanied by escalating violations, including field interrogations, violent night raids on homes, systematic destruction of property, assaults on detainees and their families through beatings, threats and humiliation, holding family members hostage, stealing money and belongings, and carrying out field executions,” it said.

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The society said rising occupier attacks also contributed to widening the scope of arrests, particularly in villages and towns targeted by illegal settlement expansions, where dozens of Palestinians were detained during attacks carried out by occupiers under Israeli army protection.

About 9,500 Palestinian prisoners, including 92 women and 370 children, are currently held in Israeli prisons under harsh conditions, with dozens reported to have died as a result of starvation, torture and medical neglect, according to Palestinian and Israeli rights organizations.

​​​​​​​In 2002, Israel’s Knesset passed the “Unlawful Combatant Law,” which allows Palestinians to be held for indefinite periods without indictment or sufficient evidence being presented to a court, according to Al Mezan Center for Human Rights.

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