Human Rights Report 7 500 Arrests in the West Bank During 2025 Systematic Escalation Targeting Children and Women

The Palestinian Center for Prisoner Studies revealed an unprecedented escalation in the Israeli occupation authorities’ policy of arrests and abuse against Palestinians in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, during 2025. The center documented more than 7,500 arrests, including approximately 600 minors.

In a statement issued Wednesday, the center explained that these arrests are part of a systematic policy aimed at disrupting Palestinian society and undermining any resistance movement. It emphasized that the published figures do not include the thousands of Palestinians detained during mass arrest campaigns and extrajudicial field interrogations, who were later released after being subjected to assault and abuse. The majority of these detainees are former prisoners.

The center pointed out that the occupation uses arrest as a tool of collective punishment and to disrupt the daily lives of Palestinians, as part of a retaliatory policy based on deterrence and intimidation through force, in blatant violation of international law, which restricts arrest to strict conditions and clear charges.

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) reported that the arrests targeted all segments of Palestinian society, including children, with 600 minors arrested, some as young as 10. The PCHR also noted the death of 17-year-old Walid Ahmed from Silwad, east of Ramallah, due to the systematic starvation policy implemented in prisons, according to the autopsy results.

The arrests also included more than 200 women, mostly on charges of “incitement” on social media. Elderly women, mothers, and sisters of martyrs and prisoners were also arrested as part of a policy of pressure and blackmail. The campaign also targeted female university students, some of whom remain in detention, with several others facing administrative detention orders.

The PCHR further noted the re-arrest of several released female prisoners, both those freed in prisoner exchange deals and those who had completed their sentences, on