Israeli forces continue ‘systematic detention campaigns’ in West Bank: Rights groups

Independent and non-governmental rights organizations say Israeli military forces continue “systematic detention campaigns” in the West Bank, with more than 7,000 Palestinians having been arrested across the occupied territory since the occupying regime launched its genocidal war on Gaza. 

The Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) said in a joint statement on Saturday that at least 7,605 Palestinians have been detained by Israeli soldiers since the start of the Israeli onslaught on the besieged coastal sliver in early October.

They said the figure includes those who have been rounded up during military raids on their homes, at military checkpoints, or those who have been forced to surrender themselves under pressure.

The rights organizations noted that Israel’s arrest campaign in the occupied West Bank has escalated in an unprecedented manner following October 7.

According to the official Palestinian news agency WAFA, Israeli forces detained at least nine young Palestinian men across the West Bank.

The forces arrested a Palestinian youth in the village of al-Mudawwar, south of Qalqilya city, after breaking into his home and searching it thoroughly.

Another Palestinian was rounded up at a security checkpoint near Khirbat al-Nabi Elias village.

Israeli soldiers also arrested three Palestinians in the southern West Bank city of al-Khalil, situated 30 kilometers (19 miles) south of al-Quds, and another three in Jenin city.

Israeli special units arrested a Palestinian at Bab Hutta neighborhood in the Old City of al-Quds as well.

More than 400 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank since October 7, when Israel waged the war on Gaza after Hamas carried out a historic operation against the occupying entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

The Israeli aggression has so far killed at least 31,553 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 73,546 others in Gaza. The Tel Aviv regime has imposed a “complete siege” on the territory, cutting off fuel, electricity, food, and water to the more than two million Palestinians living there.