Israeli forces arrested some 5,426 Palestinians, among them hundreds of women and children, in the first half of 2021, several Palestinian organizations said.
A total of 854 children and 107 women were among those taken into custody since the beginning of this year, said a joint report by the Commission of Detainees' Affairs, the Palestinian Prisoner Society, the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, and the Wadi Hilweh Information Center.
The month of May saw the highest number of arrests, with 3,100 Palestinians taken into Israeli custody, the statement said. The occupied city of Jerusalem came first with the highest number of arrests with 1,699, it added.
May saw widespread protests over Israel's attempts to displace Palestinians from the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem as well as other areas.
The report said most of the detainees, especially those in Jerusalem and Arab cities inside Israel, were released, but without providing an exact number.
The arrests recorded in the first half of this year are double the cases registered in the first half of last year, the report said.
The report estimates that 4,850 Palestinians are still held in Israeli prisons as of June 30, including 41 women, 225 minors and 540 people held under Israel's administrative detention policy, which allows detention of Palestinians without charge or trial.
