Middle East Monitor / May 17, 2021
The Palestinian Prisoners Society has announced that since the beginning of April, Israel has arrested 1,500 Palestinians in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the occupied territories.
This came in a statement issued by the organization on Sunday, of which Anadolu Agency received a copy.
The statement disclosed: “The Israeli occupation authorities have arrested about 1,500 Palestinian men and women since the escalation of the confrontations in Jerusalem last April.”
The statement explained that this is the highest number of recorded arrests since the popular uprising of October 2015.
The statement pointed out that the highest number of arrestees are from the occupied territories, where more than 700 arrests have been recorded since 9 May. In Jerusalem, the arrest campaign targeted nearly 400 Palestinians, while the West Bank governorates recorded approximately 400 arrests.
While most of the detainees in Jerusalem and the territories occupied since 1948 were released on conditions, the Palestinian Prisoners Society indicated that the majority of detainees in the West Bank are still in detention.
On 13 April, tensions in the Palestinian territories escalated as a result of brutal attacks by the Israeli police and settlers in Jerusalem, Al-Aqsa Mosque and its environs, as well as the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood, following Israeli efforts to evacuate 12 Palestinian homes and surrender them to settlers.
Since Monday, the situation has taken a dangerous turn when Israel launched an aggression with aircraft and artillery against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, while the Palestinian resistance factions have responded by firing rockets at Israeli cities.
On Sunday, the Israeli military operation led to the deaths of 202 Palestinians, including 181 in Gaza and 21 in the West Bank, in addition to injuring 5,588 others, according to a statement issued by the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Israel currently imprisons around 4,400 Palestinians, including 39 women, about 155 children, and 350 administrative detainees.
