Israel holds 10,800 Palestinians in its prisons: Rights groups

RAMALLAH, Palestine / ISTANBUL

Israel is holding 10,800 Palestinians in its prisons, prisoners’ affairs groups said on Tuesday.

“This figure does not include Palestinians held in Israeli army-run camps,” read a joint statement by the Commission of Detainees Affairs, the Palestinian Prisoner Society, and Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association.

The figure is the highest since the second Palestinian Intifada against the Israeli occupation in 2000, the groups said.

The detainees include 50 women, 450 children, and 629 people held without trial or charge under Israel’s notorious policy of administrative detention, the statement said.

According to the Prisoners’ Media Office, the Israeli army arrested more than 17,000 Palestinians, including 545 women and 1,360 children, from Gaza since October 2023.

The Israeli army has killed more than 57,500 Palestinians, most of them women and children, in Gaza since October 2023. The relentless bombardment has destroyed the enclave and led to food shortages and a spread of disease.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.