Israel arrests 100 Palestinians in a week as West Bank pogroms continue

Israeli forces have detained more than 100 Palestinians in the West Bank over the past week, including children, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) says, as pogroms continue across the occupied territory.

The Palestinian rights group, which tracks detentions and conditions in Israeli custody, said in a statement on Thursday that Israeli forces have intensified detention operations across the territory, alleging a range of abuses including field interrogations, physical assaults, threats against detainees’ families and, in some cases, extrajudicial killings.

The group said that Israeli forces conducted extensive home raids during the operations, searching and damaging properties and, in some cases, occupying homes for military use.

It added that Palestinians were sometimes held to pressure relatives, and that entire neighbourhoods were swept during raids. Children were also arrested, it said.

Among those detained over the past week was Ahmad al-Sayfi, a former prisoner from Birzeit who had been released under a recent prisoner exchange deal, the PPS said.

Journalists Muath Amarneh and Sabri Jibril were also among those detained, along with several other former prisoners.

The PPS also said Israeli settlers carried out attacks on Palestinians and their property , including assaults, road blockades and attacks on vehicles, which it said took place with the protection of Israeli forces.

The group said Israeli forces have detained more than 25,000 Palestinians in the West Bank, and thousands more in Gaza, since Israel’s genocidal war began in October 2023.