Israel is holding nearly 800 Palestinians without trial or charge, the highest number since 2008, an Israeli rights group said Sunday.
The group, HaMoked, which regularly gathers figures from Israeli prison authorities, said that 798 Palestinians are currently being held in so-called administrative detention, a practice where the prisoners can be held for months, do not know the charges against them and are not granted access to the evidence against them.
Israel claims it uses administrative detention to impede attacks and restrain dangerous militants without revealing sensitive intelligence. Rights groups and Palestinians say it is an abusive system that denies freedom without due process, leaving some Palestinians for months or even years behind bars with no evidence against them made accessible. Some resort to life-threatening hunger strikes to draw attention to their detention, which often drives up tensions between Israel and Palestinians.
HaMoked said the figure was a new peak in a growing wave of administrative detentions which began last spring following a series of attacks by Palestinians against Israelis that killed 19 people. Those attacks sparked the Israeli raids that have killed some 100 Palestinians, many of them said to be militants or local youths out to protest the incursion into their cities or towns, but civilians have also died in the violence.
Philippines Latest News, Philippines Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Student Groups at UC-Berkeley School of Law Create ‘Jewish-Free Zones,’ School Dean Responds to Report'by amending bylaws to ensure that they will never invite any speakers that support Israel or Zionism'
Read more »
Review: Mark Hume finds the perfect spot to cast a line and meditate on his life in ‘Reading the Water’Mark Hume finds the perfect spot to cast a line and meditate on his life in ‘Reading the Water’
Read more »
Mark Carney says net-zero impossible without nuclear power\u0027There’s no transition that works without nuclear, full stop.\u0027 Read on
Read more »