Israeli occupation forces (IOF) detained about 475 Palestinian citizens in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem in March, including 74 children, and 9 women.

The highest rate of detentions was in occupied Jerusalem with 45%, as the IOF detained 225 Palestinians, including 32 kids and 8 women.

Israeli forces detained 60 Palestinians in Hebron, 44 in Nablus, 39 in Bethlehem, and 34 in Jenin. 

The detentions by Israeli forces were conducted during military incursions into the occupied cities and towns of occupied West Bank and Jerusalem accompanied by assaulting, injuring, and killing Palestinian citizens.

According to Palestinian figures, Israeli occupation currently holds 4765 Palestinians, including 29 female prisoners, and 150 minors.

Highlights from the reporting period

• Israeli occupation forces escalated detention operations against Palestinians in March. 22 March witnessed the highest rate of detention during the month with Israeli forces detaining 28 Palestinian citizens. On March 15, IOF detained 24 Palestinian during raids on Palestinian cities across West Bank and Jerusalem. They detained 22 Palestinians on 7 March. The rest of the days, the rate of detentions was between 10 and 20 per day.
• IOF detained 11 Palestinian citizens in Gaza, some of them were detained while passing through the Erez crossing, through which the Israeli occupation controls Palestinians’ movements and all aspects of life in the besieged Gaza. Other Palestinians were detained near the separation fences in eastern Gaza.
• The Israeli occupation court issued 255 administrative detention orders against Palestinian citizens, including 137 renewal orders and 88 new orders against Palestinian most of them are ex-detainees. In Jerusalem only, the Israeli court issued 20 administrative detention orders against Palestinians. It also sentences 32 Palestinian citizens to house arrest. The Israeli occupation issued 69 deportation orders, 26 from Al-Aqsa Mosque, against Jerusalemites.
• Since the beginning of Ramadan, Israeli forces have detained about 115 Palestinian citizens. According to Palestine Center for Prisoners Studies, 40% of the arrest cases during the first week of Ramadan were in Jerusalem, mainly in the Damascus Gate, Silwan, Al-Tur, and the vicinity of Al-Aqsa Mosque. The majority of the detainees were beaten before being transferred to investigation and detention centers. Among the detainees, the Israeli occupation kidnaped 21 Palestinian kids from the towns and neighborhoods of occupied Jerusalem.
• On March 22, the Palestinian detainees in the Israeli occupation prisons decided to suspend the open mass hunger strike they began, after forcing the Israeli prison administration to stop the punitive and arbitrary measures against them. An agreement was reached between the prison administration and the Palestinian detainees’ movement. The agreement focused on preserving the achievements of the detainees, the regular use of public telephones, the removal of some isolated detainees from isolation, and the use of some electrical tools that were previously withdrawn by the prison administration. The agreement also included that any measures taken against the Palestinian detainees in the future must be through the Israeli cabinet, and not by the extremist Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir.
• 20 Palestinian detainees entered new years in Israeli occupation prisons. The Palestinian detainee Mazen Al-Qadi entered his 22nd year in Israeli prisons. Ammar Issa, Abdullah Al-Barghouti, Muhammad Jaradat, and Ashraf Hajajra, entered their 21st year. 9 others entered their 10th year in prison, who are Mohammad Abu Al-Rab, Ahmed Saad, Alaa Skafi, Naser Al-Ourtani, Mohammad Karsoo’, Izz Al-Din Hamarah, Hatem AL-Araj, Abd Al-Rahman Meqdad, and Ali Halil.  The Palestinian detainees, Samih Al-Haddad, Ahmed Husain, and Bilal Kmail, entered their 18th year in prison while Hamada Marayta entered his 12th year. The detainee Muhammad Al-Salaymeh entered his 9th year in the occupation prisons.