DayofPal— Israeli occupation forces detained 442 Palestinians in October, including three women and 33 children, as part of an ongoing campaign of repression in the occupied West Bank despite the declared ceasefire in Gaza.
The figures were compiled in a joint report issued Sunday by the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society, and Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association.
The report revealed that most arrests took place in Bethlehem Governorate in the southern West Bank and were accompanied by widespread field interrogations in several towns and cities.
Since October 8, 2023, Israeli forces have carried out around 20,500 arrests, including over 595 women and 1,630 children, the organizations said. The number of Palestinian prisoners who have died in Israeli custody has risen to 81, with three deaths recorded in October alone.
As of the end of October, the total number of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons exceeded 9,250, most of them held under administrative detention without charge or trial. The figure does not include those detained in military camps or temporary facilities, the report noted.
Field visits conducted by the human rights organizations throughout October documented severe and ongoing abuses against prisoners, including torture, starvation, sexual violence, medical neglect, and denial of family visits.
The report stressed that conditions have worsened since the ceasefire and the prisoner exchange deal signed on October 10, describing the violations as part of a “systematic policy to break the prisoners’ will and humiliate them.”
In parallel, the report highlighted an escalating campaign of attacks by Israeli forces and settlers across the West Bank since the start of the “war of extermination” in Gaza.
The crackdown has resulted in the killing of more than 1,069 Palestinians and the injury of nearly 10,000 others, according to the organizations.
The three Palestinian rights groups concluded that the ongoing detentions and attacks demonstrate the systematic and criminal nature of Israeli policies and called for urgent international intervention to hold Israel accountable for its “crimes against Palestinian prisoners and civilians in both the West Bank and Gaza.”
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