Israeli forces arrest 10 more Palestinians in West Bank raids

By Aysar Alais and Ikram Kouachi

ISTANBUL (AA) — The Israeli army rounded up at least 10 more Palestinians in fresh military raids in the occupied West Bank, according to prisoners’ affairs groups Sunday.

A university student was among the detainees in the raids that targeted several towns in Ramallah, Nablus, and a village north of Hebron, the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner Society said in a joint statement.

The raids came amid a deadly Israeli military onslaught in the northern West Bank since Jan. 21, killing more than 60 Palestinians and displacing thousands.

The new arrests brought the number of Palestinians detained by the Israeli army in the West Bank since October 2023 to over 14,300, including those who were released after being arrested, according to Palestinian figures.

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

Palestinian rights groups estimate the number of Palestinian prisoners still languishing in Israeli jails at over 10,000, including 3,379 held under Israel’s policy of administrative detention without charge or trial.

Over the past few years, the Israeli military has conducted regular raids in the West Bank, which have escalated with the beginning of the war on Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023. Palestinians have also been violently attacked by illegal Israeli settlers.

At least 927 Palestinians have since been killed and over 7,000 others injured by Israeli army fire in the occupied territory, according to the Health Ministry.

In July 2024, the International Court of Justice declared Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land illegal and demanded the evacuation of all existing settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.