According to
information received from the Israel Police on June 24, 2020, in a partial response to HaMoked’s freedom-of-information request regarding arrests of Palestinians in 2018-2019: in 2018, 16,058 Palestinian from the oPt were arrested by Israel (among them 1,570 underage boys, 17 underage girls and 173 adult women). Of the total, 3,167 were residents of annexed East Jerusalem (among them 616 boys, 1 girl and 43 adult women). Of the non-Jerusalemites, i.e., those whose “address is in the West Bank [and the Gaza Strip]”, 4,546 were arrested in the West Bank and 8,345 inside Israel.
In 2019, 14,398 Palestinians were arrested by Israel (including 1,394 boys, 8 girls and 165 adult women); of the total, 3,128 were East Jerusalemites (including 545 boys, 2 girls and 32 adult women). Of the remainder, i.e. residents of the oPt, 4,076 were arrested in the West Bank and 7,197 inside Israel.
HaMoked also requested data on arrests of Palestinians from the Israeli military. In a
response of November 11, 2020, the military stated that the data it provided
only reflected the number of Palestinians arrested in the framework of pre-planned arrest operations, and that “the IDF does not have accurate documentation regarding the number of arrests carried out on the ground without planning, or regarding the number of arrests carried out on the ground without planning by other security bodies”. It also clarified that arrest operations do not necessarily end in actual arrests.
According to the military, in 2018, 3,204 Palestinians who are “residents of the Judea and Samaria Area [i.e. the West Bank] or with a registered address in the Gaza Strip” (i.e. residents of the oPt) were arrested in the West Bank in the framework of 4,399 pre-planned arrest operations. In 2019, 2,849 Palestinians of the oPt were arrested in the West Bank in the framework of 3,600 pre-planned operations.
As to the pre-planned arrest of Palestinian minors from the oPt (excluding East Jerusalem), the military revealed that
in 2018, 228 Palestinian minors were arrested in the framework of pre-planned arrest operations. Of them, at least 145 were arrested between 11:00 pm to 05:00 am. In 2019, 235 minors were arrested in pre-planned operations – all of them in the middle of the night. Of the 228 minors arrested in 2018, 69 were ages 12-15 (included); in 2019, of the 235 minors, 51 were between 12-15 years-old. According to the data, one Palestinian minor girl was arrested in a pre-planned operation during those years.
HaMoked also requested data on indictments and convictions of Palestinian minors in military courts. The military responded that in 2018, 577 minors were indicted; of them 554 were convicted, almost all (552) in the framework of a plea bargain. In 2019, 395 minors were indicted; of them, 363 were convicted, all of them in a plea bargain. These figures support HaMoked’s claims about substantive flaws in the process of arrest, interrogation and indictment of Palestinian minors by Israel.
