UPDATES WITH DETAILS, CHANGES HEADLINE, DECK
By Qais Abu Samra and Ahmed Asmar
RAMALLAH, Palestine / ANKARA (AA) – At least 15 more Palestinians were detained in fresh Israeli military raids in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, according to prisoners’ affairs groups.
The arrests, which took place in several towns and areas in the West Bank, included a journalist and a woman from Nablus city, the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner Society said in a joint statement.
Journalist Samir Khweira, who works for a local radio station in Nablus, was taken into Israeli custody, a local source confirmed to Anadolu.
The two groups said at least 800 Palestinians were detained by the Israeli army in the West Bank last month.
The detainees included 18 women and 84 minors, while hundreds of Palestinians were interrogated by Israeli soldiers in March, they said.
Thursday’s raids came as the Israeli army has continued a deadly military offensive in the northern West Bank since January, killing over 70 Palestinians, displacing thousands, and turning many homes into military outposts.
The new arrests brought the number of Palestinians detained by the Israeli army in the West Bank since October 2023 to nearly 16,400, 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.
Nearly 950 Palestinians have been killed and over 7,000 injured by the Israeli army and illegal settlers in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, figures released by the Health Ministry showed.
In July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s longstanding occupation of Palestinian territories illegal, calling for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.