17,500 detained; Systematic arrests in the West Bank amid Gaza war

The prisoners’ organizations (the Commission for Prisoners and Former Prisoners, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, and Al-Dameer Association for Prisoners and Human Rights) announced that 488 cases of detention were recorded in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, in May 2025.

As a result, the total number of detentions in the West Bank since the start of the genocidal war in the Gaza Strip has reached approximately 17,500, including 545 women and around 1,400 children. According to these organizations, this figure includes those detained by the occupiers as well as those subsequently released. The statistics do not include detentions in Gaza, which are estimated to number in the thousands.

The organizations, releasing details of the most significant data and issues for May 2025, stated that detention campaigns, alongside the ongoing genocidal war against the people of Gaza and the escalation of comprehensive aggression across Palestinian territories, including an unprecedented increase in settler violence, have continued.

Due to the intensified confrontations and the ongoing efforts of Palestinians to counter the escalating aggression against them, the wave of detentions has intensified in numerous villages and towns.

The Palestinian prisoners’ organizations reported that intensive detention campaigns have been accompanied by field executions and the demolition of dozens of homes, particularly in the provinces of Jenin and Tulkarm, which have witnessed the largest and most dangerous aggression since the Al-Aqsa Intifada.

Additionally, the occupiers have continued to escalate field investigations, accompanied by abuse, severe beatings, and organized terrorist operations, particularly targeting the families of wanted individuals. They have used family members of wanted persons, especially women and children, as hostages.

According to these Palestinian organizations, during May, the targeting of prisoners released in the recent prisoner exchange agreement between Hamas and the Zionist regime also increased.

The occupying forces, in addition to repeatedly raiding their homes, detained, summoned, and interrogated many of them. They also placed some under administrative detention. The most prominent case was that of the released prisoner “Wael Jaghoub,” who spent 23 years in Zionist regime prisons and was freed in the January and February exchange agreement this year. However, he was subsequently detained and placed under administrative detention for six months.

The organizations also noted an increase in the theft of money and property, particularly vehicles, from released prisoners. Several cases were recorded across various areas of the West Bank where vehicles belonging to released prisoners were stolen under the pretext of confiscation.

While this is not a new policy, the occupiers are systematically attempting to enforce it against released prisoners, their families, and many families of prisoners held in Zionist jails.