Israel holds 8,600 Palestinian detainees: Rights group

JERUSALEM

At least 8,600 Palestinians are held in Israeli jails, including detainees from the Gaza Strip, according to an Israeli human rights group on Tuesday.

The detainees include 3,291 people held without trial or charge under Israel’s notorious policy of administrative detention, HaMoked said in a statement based on figures released by the Israeli Prison Service.

Around 661 Palestinians classified by Israel as “unlawful combatants” were detained since the outbreak of the Gaza conflict on Oc. 7, the figures showed.

"Israel's treatment of security inmates [Palestinian detainees] violates their rights to equality, dignity, family life, education, and more, in contravention of international law," HaMoked said.

The Israeli army said Tuesday that it had arrested around 2,550 Palestinians, including 1,300 accused by Tel Aviv of being Hamas members, in the occupied West Bank since Oct. 7.

No figures, however, were provided by the Israeli army about the number of Palestinian detainees from the Gaza Strip.

Israel has launched air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Palestinian resistance group Hamas on Oct. 7.

At least 22,185 Palestinians have since been killed and 57,035 others injured, according to Gaza’s health authorities, while nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

The Israeli onslaught has left Gaza in ruins, with 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure damaged or destroyed, and nearly 2 million residents displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicines.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar