LONDON: Israeli prison authorities held 9,500 prisoners and detainees as of the first week of March, indicating a 2.15 percent increase from February, according to reports from Palestinian prisoners’ organizations.

Currently, there are 73 female prisoners and 350 individuals under the age of 18 detained in the notorious prisons of Megiddo and Ofer.

The number of administrative detainees is 3,442, the highest percentage among those sentenced, arrested, or classified as “unlawful combatants.” They represent 36 percent of all Palestinians in Israeli prisons, where individuals can be indefinitely detained without charge in military detention centers.

There are also 1,249 “unlawful combatants” detained from inside the Gaza Strip after Oct. 7, 2023, as well as those who were detained from Lebanon and Syria.