RAMALLAH, Palestine

The Israeli army rounded up at least 25 more Palestinians in fresh military raids in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, according to prisoners’ affairs groups.

Former prisoners were among the detainees in the raids that targeted several towns in the West Bank, the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner Society said in a joint statement.

The arrests came as the Israeli army has continued a deadly military offensive in the northern West Bank since Jan. 21, killing at least 70 Palestinians and displacing thousands.

The two rights groups said that at least 450 Palestinians have been detained in Jenin and Tulkarem in the northern West Bank since January.

The new arrests brought the number of Palestinians detained by the Israeli army in the West Bank since October 2023 to over 15,640, including those who were released after being arrested, according to Palestinian figures.

The figure does not include those arrested from the Gaza Strip whose numbers are estimated to be in the thousands.

Tension has been running high across the occupied West Bank, where at least 935 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 7,000 injured in attacks by the Israeli army and illegal settlers since the start of the onslaught on the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, 2023, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

In July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s longstanding occupation of Palestinian territories illegal, calling for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.