Group: Nearly 1,000 Palestinians detained in October

OCT. 26, 2015 3:14 P.M. (UPDATED: OCT. 26, 2015 7:40 P.M.)

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(AFP/Abbas Momani/File)

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Just short of 1,000 Palestinians, including 147 children, have been detained by Israeli forces since the beginning of the month, Palestinian prisoners' rights group Addameer said Monday.

The group's advocacy coordinator, Rafat Sub Laban, told Ma'an that at least 988 Palestinians had been detained in October, including 578 in the occupied West Bank, 258 in East Jerusalem, and 152 in Israel.

He added that it was not year clear how many prisoners were still being held and how many had been released, although Addameer estimated that there were now some 6,300 Palestinians in Israel's prisons in total, up from 5,620 at the end of last month.

Sub Laban added that there are now around 400 prisoners being held under administrative detention -- internment without trial or charge -- including 43 Palestinians detained this month.

He also said that there are now some 270 children, under the age of 18, inside Israel's prisons, as well as 36 women.

He noted that although the numbers were as accurate as possible, they remained approximate, based on the group's own documentation.

He added: "We're not getting accurate information from inside the jails."

Other monitoring groups have said that as many as 1,200 or 1,300 Palestinians have so far been detained in October.

On Sunday, the Palestinian Government Media Center said that 1,003 Palestinians had been detained, which it said put the number of Palestinians in Israel's prisons as high as 6,620, with around 500 under administrative detention.

An Israeli prisons spokesperson, Sivan Weizman, told Ma'an that there were around 5,800 "security prisoners" inside Israel's jails, although she said she had no information on how many new prisoners there were in October.

According to UN figures, there has been a weekly average of 78 Israeli army "search and arrest operations" carried out across the occupied West Bank, with a sharp increase since protests spread across the occupied territory earlier this month.