Israel arrested 1,228 Palestinians in April: report

Israeli forces arrested 1,228 Palestinians in April, including 156 minors and 11 women, Palestinian prisoners' support organizations said in a joint statement on Monday.

The month of April witnessed the highest rate of arrests by Israeli forces since the beginning of the year, the statement released by the Palestinian Prisoners' Club, Addameer Association for Prisoners' Support, the Palestinian Higher Commission for Prisoners Affairs and the Wadi Hilweh Information Centre in Jerusalem said. 

The statement specified that during the same period, Israeli forces issued 68 new administrative detention orders and 86 renewal orders of current administrative detentions.

165 children and 11 women were among 1228 Palestinians detained by Israeli occupation last month.

By the end of April, 4700 Palestinian prisoners, including 170 children and 32 women, are held in Israeli jails pic.twitter.com/TJknsCdNmn

— PALESTINE ONLINE 🇵🇸 (@OnlinePalEng) May 23, 2022

"This can be explained by the escalation of events in April, especially in Jenin and Jerusalem," Ayah Shreiteh, the spokesperson for the Palestinian Prisoners' Club told The New Arab.

"The number includes the hundreds of Palestinians arrested during the Israeli settlers' storming of the Al-Aqsa compound in the holy month of Ramadan," Shreiteh noted.

Israeli police arrested 781 Palestinians during the month of Ramadan at the Al-Aqsa compound, according to figures released by the Israeli Knesset earlier in May.

The Palestinian detainees' Families' Committee in Jerusalem had previously told The New Arab that over half of the detainees at Al-Aqsa during Ramadan have been released.

🔶 العاصمة| تغطية صحفية:" جانب من اقتحام قوات الاحتلال لقرية جفنا شمال رام الله, واندلاع مواجهات مع الشبان". pic.twitter.com/ErBnPoPf73

— العاصمة - فلسطين (@AlAsimaNews) May 22, 2022

On Monday, the Israeli army announced that it had arrested 11 Palestinians during several raids across the West Bank. Palestinian sources also documented 11 injuries.

"Two youngsters were injured in their backs by rubber bullets," Mahdi Hamdan, a local resident of the village of Jifna, north of Ramallah, told The New Arab. 

"The Israeli army also confiscated several security cameras but did not arrest anyone in the village, but continued their way to Birzeit [1km away] and arrested a university student," Hamdan added. 

Abdallah Allolu, an undergraduate student at Birzeit University, was among the detainees, the Prisoners' Club affirmed.

#شاهد .. الشبان يرجمون آليات الاحتلال بالحجارة و الزجاجات الحـ.ارقـ.ـة لحظة انسحابها من بلدة الزبابدة جنوب جنين قبل قليل. pic.twitter.com/RNWj8vBTqd

— المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام (@PalinfoAr) May 23, 2022

Israeli forces also arrested two Palestinians in their twenties in the villages of Rummanah and Zababdeh near Jenin, after confrontations with local youth, in which one Palestinian was injured.

Further arrests were carried out in the Balata refugee camp in Nablus, in the village of Taqwa, near Bethlehem, and in southern Hebron.

Over one million Palestinians have been arrested by Israeli forces since 1967. Currently, around 4,650 Palestinians remain in Israeli jails, including 170 minors, 32 women and 600 administrative detainees, held without charges, according to human rights groups.