AL-QUDS (Dispatches) – The Zionist regime is holding over 1,000 Palestinian detainees without charge or trial, the highest number since 2003, an Israeli human rights group says.
The controversial tactic is known as “administrative detention”. Palestinians and rights groups say the system is widely abused and denies due process, with the secret nature of the evidence making it impossible for detainees or their lawyers to mount a defense.
HaMoked, an Israeli rights group that regularly gathers figures from prison authorities, said that as of April, there were 1,016 detainees held in detention. Nearly all of them are Palestinians detained under military law, as the so-called administrative detention is very rarely used against Jews.
“There is no sense of when the nightmare will end,” said 48-year-old Manal Abu Bakr in Dheisheh, a refugee camp near the West Bank city of Bethlehem. Her 28-year-old son Mohammed lost his four college years to administrative detention. Her husband, Nidal, a journalist and radio presenter, remains in custody. He has spent 17 years behind bars in the past three decades, more than half of it without charge, according to a prisoner’s rights group, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club.
The hearing on the renewal of his detention is set for September. “I’m exhausted,” Manal said. “It’s hard even to hope.”
HaMoked says 2,416 Palestinians are serving sentences after being convicted in the Zionist regime’s military courts. An additional 1,409 detainees are being held for questioning, have been charged and are awaiting trial, or are currently being tried.
Among the 76 Palestinians incarcerated in the last month, 49 are “administrative detainees”. The detention orders can be issued for a maximum of six months, but can be renewed indefinitely.
“The numbers are shocking,” said Jessica Montell, the director of HaMoked. “There are no restraints on the use of what should be a rare exception. It’s just getting easier and easier for them to hold people with no charge or trial.”
A widespread military crackdown on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank has helped fuel the sharp rise in detentions.
The occupying regime’s campaign of raids into Palestinian cities and towns following a string of deadly Palestinian attacks last year led to the arrest of over 2,400 Palestinians since March 2022, according to the occupying regime’s military. The regime’s Shin Bet spy agency did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the latest detention figures.
Palestinian residents and critics say the operation only further stokes the cycle of bloodshed, as the incursions ignite protests and firefights with Palestinian resistance fighters.