LONDON: More than 10,000 Palestinians are currently held in Israeli prisons, the highest prisoner count since the Second Intifada in 2000, Palestinian prisoners’ advocacy groups reported on Tuesday.
As of early July, some 10,800 prisoners are said to be held in Israeli detention centers and prisons, including 50 women — two of whom are from the Gaza Strip — and over 450 children. The figures do not include individuals detained in Israeli military camps such as Sde Teiman, where many people from Gaza are believed to be held and subjected to torture.
A total of 3,629 Palestinians are currently detained under administrative detention, a practice that allows Israeli authorities to hold individuals in prison without trial for six months, which is subject to indefinite renewals.
A further 2,454 detainees are designated as “unlawful combatants,” including Palestinians and Arabs from Lebanon and Syria.
Since the 1967 occupation of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, over 800,000 Palestinians have spent time in Israeli jails, according to a UN report in 2023.
