Israel detained 446 Palestinians in occupied territories in October: Report

Israeli forces last month arrested at least 446 Palestinians, including dozens of children and women, many of whom have been subjected to numerous rights violations, reports say. 

Palestinian prisoners’ advocacy groups and non-profit organizations said in a joint report that at least 200 of those detained in October were from the occupied East Jerusalem al-Quds, Palestine's official Wafa news agency reported on Thursday. 

Another 244 Palestinians were arrested by Israeli forces across the occupied West Bank cities of Hebron (al-Khalil), Ramallah, Bethlehem and Jenin, Tulkarm, Qalqilya, Jericho, Tubas and Salfit during the same period.

At least two of the detainees were from the besieged Palestinian enclave of Gaza Strip. The detainees also included 63 minors and 16 women.

Earlier this month, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS) voiced concern over the health condition of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, saying dozen more detainees had tested positive for the new coronavirus.

There have been growing calls from regional and international rights groups, including the Europal Forum, to put pressure on the Israeli regime to provide Palestinian prisoners with enough protection against the COVID-19 pandemic.

More than 7,000 Palestinians are reportedly held in 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.

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

The administrative detention, which is a form of imprisonment without trial or charge, allows authorities to incarcerate Palestinians for up to six months. The duration could be extended for an infinite number of times.

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

The detention takes place on orders from a military commander and on the basis of what the Israeli regime describes as ‘secret’ evidence.

In November last year, a report said that Palestinian children arrested by Israel experienced numerous rights violations as soon as they were taken away from their houses usually late at night under harsh conditions.

The violations continue, which include children being interrogated in poor humanitarian conditions.

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The report added that the arrested children are denied their right to education, a clear violation of the Declaration of the Rights of the Child. Some of the children are also denied family visits and medical treatment.

Arrested Palestinian children are at times deprived of food and water and experience beatings, insults, threats and intimidation, according to the Palestinian Quds News Network. The network added that children are at times forced to confess and pay high fines for alleged climes. 

Israel has reportedly arrested some 16,500 Palestinian children since the outbreak of the Second Intifada (uprising) in late 2000.

‘Israel has arrested 16,500 Palestinian minors since 2000’

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Since 2015, several shootings have also been documented showing that Israeli authorities have been deliberately targeting children, according to the Palestinian Quds News Network.

Back in March 2019, the UN children’s agency UNICEF said that around 40 children had been killed and hundreds more wounded in a year of anti-occupation protest rallies along the fence that separates the besieged Gaza Strip and the Israeli-occupied territories.

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