Beirut - Saba:
The Palestine Center for Prisoners' Studies (an independent Beirut-based organization) reported on Sunday that the Israeli occupation authorities continued their arrest campaigns in April, recording 550 arrests in the occupied West Bank and Al-Quds.
Among those detained were 14 women and 52 children, while two prisoners died due to deliberate medical neglect in Israeli jails.
According to Quds Press Agency, the center noted that Israeli forces carried out mass arrests targeting dozens of Palestinians in multiple areas, including the villages of Kobar and Al-Tabaqa, the refugee camps of Al-Dheisheh and Al-Fawwar, and the cities of Al-Zahiriyya, Qalqilya, and Jaba’. Detainees were held in citizens' houses, which were turned into makeshift interrogation centers.
The report also highlighted the ongoing targeting of women and children, with arrests including female university students, a journalist, and a lawyer along with her two daughters. The youngest detainee was a seven-year-old child.
Regarding prisoners' health conditions, the center documented the deaths of two detainees: Nasser Redaida (49) from Bethlehem and Musab Adili (20) from Nablus, both due to medical negligence in Israeli prisons. This raises the number of Palestinian prisoners who have died in detention to 302.
April also saw an escalation in administrative detention policies, with 910 new or renewed administrative detention orders issued—including against women and children. Among them was the youngest administrative detainee, a 14-year-old from Ramallah.
Additionally, the center revealed shocking testimonies from released Gaza detainees, who reported enduring severe physical torture and systematic starvation in Israeli prisons, leading some to lose half their body weight.
The center accused Israeli authorities of attempting to assassinate prominent prisoner figures through torture and starvation, including Abdullah Barghouti, Hassan Salameh, Abbas Al-Sayed, Muhammad Al-Natsheh, and Ma’mar Shahrour, all of whom are in critical health conditions due to abuse and neglect.
The report noted that 73 detainees from Gaza were released during April via the Kerem Shalom and Karm Abu Salem crossings, including two women who had been subjected to enforced disappearance and were freed in deteriorating health conditions.
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