CAIRO, July 17. /TASS/. The number of Palestinians that have been detained by Israel in the West Bank since October 7 last year exceeded 9,700, the Palestinian Commission for Prisoners' Affairs said.

According to the agency, at least 15 people were detained over the past night in the West Bank, "including three women, a minor and people that had been previously imprisoned." Operations to detain the people, who Israel suspects of involvement in terrorist activities took place in the provinces of Hebron, Jenin, Jericho, Bethlehem and Salfit.

The Palestinian Commission for Prisoners' Affairs stated that "the campaigns by occupation forces are accompanied by mass raids, severe beatings and threats against detainees and their families."

The situation in the Middle East sharply escalated following an incursion of Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip into Israel on October 7, accompanied by killings of residents of Israeli settlements near the border and taking more than 200 hostages, including children, women and elderly people. Hamas cast the attack as a response to Israeli actions against the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Israel declared a complete siege of the Gaza Strip and started striking the enclave and parts of Lebanon and Syria. Afterward, the IDF started a ground operation in Gaza.