Zionist entity detained over 500 Palestinians in January: Advocacy groups

Three advocacy groups say Zionist regime forces detained more than 500 Palestinians, including dozens of children and women, last month.

According to reports, the detentions were made in the occupied al-Quds, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Prisoners Society, the prisoners and ex-prisoner affairs committee, and the prisoners’ rights group Addameer said. 

Regime forces took away at least 509 people, including 89 children and eight women, during repeated raids, the groups said in a statement carried by Ma'an news agency on Thursday.

Those arrested include 102 Palestinians from al-Quds, 88 from Ramallah, 80 from al-Khalil, 55 from Jenin, 62 from Bethlehem, 30 from Nablus, 30 from Tulkarm, 25 from Qalqilya, 8 from Toubas, 6 from Salfit, 10 from Jericho, and 10 from the Gaza Strip. 

The groups said the illegal Zionist entity has intensified its collective punishment policy against Palestinian families accused of having attacked the illegal Zionist settlers.   

More than 7,000 Palestinians are reportedly held at Israeli jails. Hundreds of the inmates have apparently been incarcerated under the practice of administrative detention, a policy under which Palestinian inmates are kept in Israeli detention facilities without trial or charge. 

Some Palestinian prisoners have been held in administrative detention for up to 11 years.

Palestinian inmates regularly stage hunger strikes in protest at the administrative detention policy and harsh conditions in Israeli jails. 

At least over a dozen Palestinian lawmakers and nearly 20 journalists are currently held in Israeli detention facilities. Several of them are being held without trial under the administrative detention policy.

SS