The release of Israeli women and children held as prisoners in the Gaza Strip has been negotiated in exchange for Palestinian women and minors detained in Israeli prisons. According to a Palestinian prisoners’ rights group, the size of that group has expanded rapidly in the six weeks since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
According to Addameer, over 200 boys, the majority of whom are teens, were detained in Israel as of this week, along with approximately 75 women and five young girls. According to the report, around 150 boys and 30 women and girls were detained in Israeli prisons prior to October 7, and many other detentions and releases have happened since then.
The figures were generated using data from the Israel Prison Service, which manages the country’s jails, as well as information from jailed people’s families, according to Addameer. The Israeli government and Hamas agreed early Wednesday that they will maintain a four-day cease-fire in Gaza to allow for the release of 50 hostages abducted during Hamas’ attack on Israel last month and 150 Palestinian inmates held in Israel.
Many of the most recent arrests occurred during searches across the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where protests and violence have increased, including Israeli settlers attacking Palestinians. According to Israel, the arrests are part of a counter-terrorism operation against Hamas in the West Bank.
Palestinian prisoner numbers surge amid rising tensions
There are also over 700 persons missing from Gaza who are believed to be in Israeli prisons, according to Tala Nasir, a spokesperson for Addameer. It was unclear how many of the victims were women or youngsters if any at all. The Israeli military claims it captured 300 persons in Gaza during the ground invasion, alleging they were linked to armed Palestinian factions and were “brought into Israeli territory for further interrogation.”
33 of the approximately 240 Israeli hostages carried to Gaza by Hamas and other armed groups are youngsters; the youngest of them is 9 months old according to the Israeli authorities. According to a group founded by the captives’ families, at least 62 are women. According to discussions with their family members and information acquired by a forum of the hostages’ families, four of the women being held captive are Israeli soldiers.
The overall number of Palestinian political prisoners in Israel as of this week, including those from Gaza, the West Bank, and Israel, was 7,000, up from around 5,000 before Oct. 7 according to Addameer. More than 2,000 people are being kept in “administrative detention,” which means they are being held indefinitely without charges, it said.
According to Nasir, her organization defines this category as Palestinians detained for charges relating to political activism and free speech rather than crimes like narcotics or violence. She went on to say that Addameer has received numerous complaints in recent weeks of persons being imprisoned on incitement charges for their social media posts in Israel and the West Bank. The Knesset passed an amendment to a counterterrorism law earlier this month that criminalized “consumption of terrorist materials.”
The death of Palestinian inmates in Israeli prisons raises concerns over detention conditions
Human rights organizations have long warned that Palestinian detainees are being kept without due process and are subjected to maltreatment and even torture. According to Military Court Watch, a non-profit legal organization, 74% of the 100 Palestinian minors imprisoned by Israeli forces interviewed last year experienced physical abuse, and 42% were placed in solitary confinement.
Among the women detained by Israel is Ahed Tamimi, 22, a prominent activist in the West Bank who was sentenced to prison in 2018 for slapping an Israeli soldier. Israeli authorities accused her of publishing hate speech online, but her relatives said the message was not hers. According to Adalah, Israel’s Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights, 121 arrests and detentions were linked to social media posts, some of which “merely contained expressions of solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza or even verses shared from the Quran.”
According to Wafa, the Palestinian Authority’s news agency, six Palestinian inmates who were imprisoned without charges have died in Israeli prisons in recent weeks. One of them, Omar Daraghmeh, was a senior member of Hamas, the militant group said when his death was announced.