LONDON: Israeli authorities released nine Palestinian detainees from Gaza among the thousands arrested during military actions in the enclave since late 2023.

Israel has arrested more than 10,700 Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and inside Israel since October 2023. The number of those arrested in the Gaza Strip is estimated to be in the thousands, according to the Wafa news agency. However, Israel’s prison authority acknowledged that until April, there were 1,747 prisoners from the Gaza Strip in its jails.

The Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society, two organizations monitoring prisoners’ conditions, have consistently accused Israel of implementing torture practices against Palestinians in detention, including starvation, medical negligence, solitary confinement and abuse.

At least 66 Palestinian prisoners have died in Israeli prisons since the outbreak of the Gaza war in 2023. Among those who died, 40 were from the Gaza Strip.

Since Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian Territories in 1967, 303 Palestinian prisoners have died in Israeli custody, with 75 bodies still being held by Israel.