As of Friday, Israel was holding 7,677 Palestinians as what it deems security inmates, and another 2,873 Palestinians as administrative detainees — which means they can be held without charge, indefinitely. More than 1,500 of the arrests were made in November alone. These figures were sent to NPR by HaMoked, an Israeli nonprofit that offers legal aid to Palestinians living under occupation. It draws data directly from Israel's prison service.
The top Palestinian official overseeing prisoners' affairs, Qadoura Fares, who belongs to the Fatah party, Hamas' rival, says more than 3,000 Palestinians have been arrested in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in total since Oct. 7.
“The majority of them, 90% of them, are victims — not prisoners,” Fares told NPR in an interview last week at his office in Ramallah. He says most of them are minors accused of nonviolent offenses.
“These are people Israel has decided to arrest for endangering Israeli security — without clarifying why, how, with whom,” Fares says.
Fares accuses Israel of stepping up arrest raids during the latest Gaza war, in order to intimidate Palestinian communities and also have more detainees to negotiate with in prisoner exchanges.
Before this war, the United Nations and human rights groups had criticized the application of military law to Palestinian civilians. They've also criticized the uptick in Israeli arrest raids since the war began.
“The scale of detentions and arrests [of Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem] since the 7th of October, and those without charges or trial, is unprecedented,” Budour Hassan, an Amnesty International researcher based in the West Bank, tells NPR. “Palestinian detainees are telling us about humiliation and reprisals, even though they had nothing to do with the Oct. 7 attacks. It's a tactic of collective reprisal against all Palestinians.”
The prison figures show that out of a total of at least 10,550 Palestinians in Israeli custody, nearly 40% of them are held without charge. Many of them are accused of nonviolent offenses.
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