Around 70 Palestinians have been detained in less than 48 hours in a sweeping Israeli crackdown on the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society said on Saturday.
The group said Israeli authorities are continuing their offensive across the West Bank, and that detentions have been on the rise since the start of the war on Gaza in October 2023.
The organisation also noted that a crackdown on Hebron, which started on Friday, has spread to other cities.
Arrests were recorded in various cities and towns, including Ramallah, Qalqilya, Jenin, Nablus, Jericho, Salfit, Tubas, Bethlehem, Tulkarem and occupied East Jerusalem.
Data compiled by the group shows that some of those detained have since been released; however, others are facing interrogations.
The data showed that many of those targeted in the crackdown were detainees who had previously been released, including some individuals who were freed as part of prisoner exchange deals.
Rights groups have decried the mass arrests as a systematic policy of persecution, and said the crackdown has extended to relatives and acquaintances of those who were formerly detained.
One of those who were targeted has been identified as Nael Barghouti. According to the official Palestinian Wafa news agency, Israeli forces raided his home in the town of Kobar, leaving his home partially destroyed and heavily vandalised.
The Palestinian Prisoners Society said that most of the detainees who were released said they were subjected to varying degrees of assault, including being blindfolded, shackled, and threatened.
The threats included being warned to not engage in any political activity.
Meanwhile, the rights group also noted that threatening leaflets were distributed across cities in the West Bank.
The development comes as hundreds of families were displaced from Hebron in the middle of the night following large-scale raids and the decision to place the city under lockdown amid a military operation.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Friday to collectively punish residents from a neighbourhood in Hebron, after an attack was carried out on an Israeli army checkpoint.
Palestinian prisoner groups have documented at least 26,000 arrests in the West Bank since the start of the war on Gaza, which does not include those detained in Gaza.
