By Qais Abu Samra
RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA) – Israeli army forces rounded up 60 more Palestinians in military raids in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, according to prisoners’ affairs groups.
Two women were among the detainees in the raids that targeted the cities of Qalqilya, East Jerusalem, Nablus, Ramallah and Hebron, the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner Society said in a joint statement.
The new arrests brought to 9,100 Palestinians detained by the Israeli army in the West Bank since last October, according to Palestinian figures.
Tensions have been running high across the West Bank since Israel launched a deadly military offensive against the Gaza Strip, which killed nearly 36,600 people following a Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023.
At least 528 Palestinians have since been killed and nearly 5,100 others injured by Israeli army fire in the occupied territory, according to the Health Ministry.
Israel stands accused of “genocide” at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which in its latest ruling has ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its military operation in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.
*Writing by Ahmed Asmar