An Israeli occupation police officer stationed at an observation tower at Gilboa Prison, September 6, 2021 (AFP)

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz on Sunday revealed that there are 971 administrative prisoners without trial in Israeli occupation prisons -- the largest number of prisoners under this category during the past 20 years.

According to the data of the Israeli occupation military, 967 prisoners out of the aforementioned total number are Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and the eastern part of occupied Al-Quds, as well as residents of the '48 occupied Palestinian territory.

The data highlighted that during the year 2022, Israeli military courts approved 90% of the administrative orders that were submitted for review, noting that only 1% of them were canceled.

Haaretz said that administrative detention is mainly used against Palestinians, although it is an exceptional tool in many parts of the world, while in some countries, it does not exist at all.

The newspaper explained that administrative prisoners are held in Israeli prisons without charges filed against them, and their detention is renewed as a precautionary measure.

It added that there is usually no evidence to incriminate the prisoners in any case, nor are any cases brought before their lawyers.

According to the newspaper, the arrests are approved by military judges who receive an order signed by a commander of the occupation military in the occupied West Bank, along with secret intelligence materials about each prisoner.

It is noteworthy that Palestinian administrative prisoners frequently undergo hunger strikes to reject their arbitrary detention.

Riyad Al-Ashqar, the director of the Palestine Center for Prisoner Studies, pointed out in August 2022, that administrative detention is an "arbitrary policy aimed at draining the lives of Palestinians behind bars without legal basis, as the intelligence service, which is fully responsible for managing this file, relies on secret charges that no one is allowed to see, and dictates instructions to the moot courts."

According to Al-Ashqar, the occupation uses administrative detention as a collective punishment against the Palestinian people, without taking into account the prohibitions set by international law, which limits its use, except within a narrow framework.