DayofPal– In a stark escalation of its ongoing crackdown across the occupied territories, Israeli forces detained approximately 800 Palestinians from the West Bank during March 2025, according to a joint report issued by three prominent prisoner rights organizations, the Detainees Affairs Commission, Addameer, and the Palestinian Prisoners Club.
Among those apprehended were 18 women and 84 children, with hundreds more subjected to field interrogations during widespread military raids.
The detentions, rights groups say, are part of a broader campaign of repression that has accompanied Israel’s intensifying military operations in both Gaza and the West Bank, particularly in the northern cities of Jenin and Tulkarem.
The report details a disturbing pattern of mass arrests, summary executions, forced displacement, and the systematic destruction of civilian infrastructure in areas targeted by Israeli forces.
“The scale and scope of these operations reflect an unprecedented level of repression,” the statement reads, citing what it calls a “deliberate policy of collective punishment.”
Since Israel began its military campaign in Gaza on October 7, 2023, over 16,400 Palestinians have been detained in the West Bank alone. The figures include at least 510 women and 1,300 children.
These numbers exclude thousands reportedly seized from Gaza, where data remains difficult to verify amid ongoing attacks.
The rights groups further highlighted the dramatic rise in administrative detention, the controversial practice of holding individuals without charge or trial. As of March, 3,498 Palestinians are being held under administrative detention orders, among them more than 100 minors.
“This level of arbitrary detention is without precedent in recent decades, not even during the height of the First or Second Intifadas did we witness such sweeping use of extrajudicial incarceration,” the organizations stated, condemning the role of Israel’s military courts in what they described as a “façade of legal legitimacy.”
The human toll of this repression has been devastating. According to official Palestinian figures, three detainees died in Israeli custody during the month of March. Since October, Israeli forces and settlers have killed at least 947 Palestinians and injured nearly 7,000 in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Military raids continue unabated across the northern West Bank, with many areas remaining under lockdown or siege. Rights advocates warn that the combination of legal impunity, indefinite detention, and military aggression is deepening the humanitarian and political crisis in the occupied territories.
The international community has yet to mount a meaningful response to the scale of the detentions or the broader conduct of Israeli forces in the West Bank and Gaza.
Rights groups are calling for urgent intervention, independent investigations, and the immediate release of arbitrarily detained Palestinians, particularly children and vulnerable detainees.
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