Over 17,000 detained by Israeli army since Gaza war: Rights group

RAMALLAH, Palestine / ISTANBUL

The Israeli army has detained more than 17,000 Palestinians since October 2023, a prisoners’ affairs group said on Wednesday.

“The detainees included 537 women and 1,360 children, who were taken into Israeli custody in the West Bank and (Arab towns) inside Israel,” the Palestinian Prisoner Society said in a statement.

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

The rights group said that scores of Palestinian women were arrested in Gaza, without giving an exact figure.

According to the group, at least 70 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons, including 44 from Gaza, since October 2023.

According to the only available data provided by the Israeli authorities, around 1,846 Palestinians from Gaza were arrested and held in Israeli prisons and military camps.

The rights group estimated that the number of Palestinian detainees reached over 10,100, including more than 400 children and 45 women.

The Israeli army, rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, has pursued a brutal offensive against Gaza since October 2023, killing over 54,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war crimes against civilians in the enclave.