9,345 detainees from the West Bank and Hebrew media: 20 arrests canceled due to prison overcrowding

The Hebrew Broadcasting Corporation revealed today, Sunday, that the occupation army and the Shin Bet were forced to cancel about 20 arrest operations that were planned this week in the West Bank, due to overcrowding in prisons, while the newspaper “Maariv” reported that the occupation has arrested about 4,150 people from all over the West Bank, since October 7.

The broadcasting authority indicated that the Israeli security services are forced "without any option to release administrative detainees (who are without charge) at the end of their detention period, with the aim of making room for detainees who are classified as a higher threat, and who require being subjected to investigation."

In early April, the Prison Service and the Ministry of National Security in Israel announced that the detention capacity for Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons was 14,500 detainees, while the actual number of detainees exceeded 21,000, according to the same source.

Security officials in Israel warn that the lack of space in detention centers and prisons will lead to the cancellation of more arrests and countermeasures in the West Bank. The prison administration also warned that, due to the continuous increase of dozens of detainees daily, it will not be able to accommodate additional security prisoners.

Last week, the Hebrew newspaper Maariv said that Tel Aviv had arrested about 4,150 Palestinians from across the West Bank since the beginning of the war on October 7, according to Shin Bet data.

In turn, the Authority for Prisoners' and Ex-Prisoners' Affairs (governmental) and the Palestinian Prisoners' Club (Ahli) announced in a joint statement on Sunday that the number of Palestinian detainees in the occupied West Bank had risen to 9,345 since the Israeli occupation army expanded its operations on this front coinciding with the start of the war on Gaza. On October 7, 2023.

The authority and the club added that the Israeli occupation forces arrested at least 20 citizens from the West Bank, including children and a high school student, in addition to former prisoners, from yesterday evening, Saturday, until Sunday morning.

They pointed out that “arrest operations were concentrated in the Hebron Governorate, then the governorates of Nablus, Qalqilya, Tubas (north), Ramallah (central), and Jericho (east),” and were accompanied by the implementation of widespread acts of abuse, severe beatings, and threats against detainees and their families, in addition to widespread acts of sabotage and destruction of homes. Citizens."

In conjunction with its devastating war on Gaza since October 7, the occupation army expanded its incursions and operations into the West Bank, leaving 553 Palestinian martyrs, including 133 children, in addition to about 5,300 wounded, according to data from the Ministry of Health.