Palestinian human rights organizations have revealed that Israeli occupation forces escalated their arrest campaign in July 2025, detaining 662 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including Jerusalem.

Among those detained were 39 children and 12 women, underscoring the ongoing targeting of civilians under the Israeli regime’s brutal policies.

The figures were detailed in a joint report issued on Sunday by the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS), and Al Dameer Association for Human Rights. The report condemned the arrests as part of Israel’s systematic campaign to crush Palestinian resistance and intimidate communities across the occupied territories.

Since the start of the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people, the total number of arrests in the West Bank has surged to more than 18,500, including over 570 women and about 1,500 children. These figures encompass both those still languishing in Israeli prisons and those who were later released.

The organizations stressed that these numbers exclude detainees from Gaza, where the occupation forces have carried out mass arrests on an unprecedented scale since October 2023. Human rights monitors estimate that thousands have been detained from the besieged enclave, many of them subjected to enforced disappearance, torture, and inhumane conditions.

Palestinian rights advocates have long warned that Israel’s arrest campaigns are part of a broader strategy of collective punishment, aimed at breaking the will of the Palestinian people and erasing their presence from their own homeland.

“These arrests are not about security—they are about silencing dissent, destroying families, and instilling fear,” the report stated, calling on international human rights bodies to take urgent action to protect detainees and hold the Israeli occupation accountable for its violations of international law.

As the genocide in Gaza and repression in the West Bank continue unabated, the Palestinian people remain steadfast, vowing that Israel’s prisons will not crush their spirit nor their right to freedom, dignity, and self-determination. (ILKHA)