Over 18,500 Palestinians detained by Israel in West Bank since October 2023

Palestinian prisoners' rights groups are reporting that over 18,500 Palestinians have been detained by Israeli forces across the occupied West Bank, including Jerusalem, since October 2023.

The figure includes 570 Palestinian women and at least 1,500 children, according to a report by the Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society, and Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association.

Over 194 journalists have also been detained, 49 of them still held in custody.

The detainee numbers mark the highest since the second Intifada in 2000.

The report also details rights violations that accompanied detentions, including beatings, threats to detainees and their families, destruction of property and the looting of homes. It also noted the "systematic destruction" of infrastructure in refugee camps in Tulkarm and Jenin, and the demolition of detainees' family homes.

The report also found that detainees were taken from their homes and at military checkpoints, and that some of the detentions were accompanied by extrajudicial killings targeting relatives of detainees.