The Israeli military has detained scores of Palestinians from the occupied West Bank amid its escalated assault in the region, with hundreds abducted by authorities in just over three weeks of the raid.
The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society said in a statement on Thursday that Israeli forces have detained 380 Palestinians in the northern West Bank since the beginning of “Operation Iron Wall” on January 21, including children and the elderly. The group said that at least 150 were abducted from Jenin, 125 from Tulkarem, and 100 from Tubas.
This is despite the Gaza ceasefire and captive swap deal going into effect on January 19, in which Israel agreed to release thousands of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for around 100 Israeli captives being held in Gaza.
According to a count by Drop Site News, this means that Israel has arrested more Palestinians from the West Bank and East Jerusalem than it’s released to the region since the ceasefire began. So far, 358 Palestinians have been released to the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the outlet says.
These detentions are often carried out in civilian areas and are largely used as a weapon by Israeli forces to suppress Palestinians. Earlier this week, for instance, Israeli forces raided a well-known Palestinian book store in East Jerusalem, arresting the shop’s owner and his nephew.
Israeli forces accused them of “disturbing public order,” which some have noted is common among Israeli authorities in cases of freedom of expression. They accused the store of having “inciteful” material, including a children’s coloring book called “From the River to the Sea.” Police tore through the store, throwing books on the ground and in the trash.
Israel has long maintained a practice of detaining and arresting Palestinians, often imprisoning them without charges, as part of its brutal system of apartheid in Palestine. There is not a provision barring Israel from imprisoning more Palestinians during the Gaza ceasefire deal.
However, the detentions come as Israel has continually violated the ceasefire deal in Gaza, Hamas officials have said, with Israel still killing Palestinians in Gaza and blocking crucial humanitarian aid from entering the region.
UN groups have raised alarm over Israel’s escalated violence in the occupied West Bank. Israel has carried out dozens of airstrikes in the West Bank this year alone, with officials counting at least 70 Palestinians killed by the current assault.
Further, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) reported this week that 40,000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced from their homes in the northern West Bank during the “Iron Wall” operation, which has become the second longest raid on the occupied West Bank since the second Intifada, also known as the al-Aqsa Intifada, in which nearly 5,000 Palestinians were killed by Israeli aggression.
“Since the start of operation ‘Iron Wall’ by the Israeli Forces on 21 January, several refugee camps have been nearly emptied of their residents,” UNRWA said. “Forced displacement in the occupied West Bank is the result of an increasingly dangerous and coercive environment. The use of air strikes, armoured bulldozers, controlled detonations, and advanced weaponry by the Israeli Forces has become commonplace — a spillover of the war in Gaza.”
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