RAMALLAH, Palestine

The Israeli army has detained 6,420 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since Oct. 7, according to prisoners’ affairs groups on Wednesday.

“More than 400 children, 215 women and 51 journalists are among the detainees,” said a joint statement by the Commission for Detainees Affairs, the Palestinian Prisoner Society and Addameer Human Rights Association.

“These figures don’t include those arrested in the Gaza Strip as the Israeli occupation refuses to give information about their fate,” the statement added.

The statement estimated the number of detainees currently held in Israeli prisons at more than 8,800 Palestinians.

“The detainees include more than 3,290 people held under Israel’s administrative detention policy without trial or charge and 661 classified as illegal combatants,” it added.

Tensions have been high across the West Bank since Israel launched a deadly military offensive against the Gaza Strip following a cross-border attack by Hamas in which Israel says 1,200 Israelis were killed.

At least 26,900 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and 65,949 others injured, according to Palestinian health authorities.

​​​​​​​*Writing by Mohammad Sio