Israel has reopened its crossings with the besieged Gaza Strip after closing them on the escalation between the two sides earlier this month, while Palestinian institutions following the affairs of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons said that Israel arrested about 900 Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip during The last two months, including 133 children and 23 women.
A spokeswoman for the Israeli government's coordination unit in the territories, which supervises the crossing points, said that the Erez crossing (Beit Hanoun) for people, and the Abu Salim (Kerem Shalom) grocer for goods with Gaza, had been opened.
The crossings were closed on May 4 when Hamas and Jihad launched hundreds of rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israel, which responded by shelling dozens of targets inside the Gaza Strip.
Twenty-five Palestinians were killed and four Israeli civilians were killed in the two-day clashes, which ended with a temporary truce on Monday.
Palestinian officials said Israel had agreed to ease its decade-old blockade of the Gaza Strip in return for a truce.
Israel did not publicly confirm the deal, but on Friday lifted its ban on Palestinian fishing boats off Gaza.
On the other hand, the Palestinian institutions that follow the affairs of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons said yesterday that Israel has arrested about 900 Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip during the past two months, including 133 children and 23 women.
"The number of administrative detention orders issued in March and April reached 112, and the number of administrative prisoners reached about 500," said the institutions, which include the Prisoners 'Affairs and Liberties Committee, the Palestinian Prisoners Club and the Al-Dameer Foundation for Prisoners' Welfare and Human Rights.
"The Israeli occupation authorities continue to arrest about 250 children and minors in the prisons of Megiddo, Ofer and Damoun.
Israel uses an old British law that allows it to detain Palestinians without trial for three to six months, renewable on the basis of a secret file of the detainee.
The report reviewed the arrests of children during the past two months, noting that "34 children were admitted to the prisoners' prisoners section in Ofer Prison last March, 20 minors who were arrested by Israel from houses and 12 roads and one was arrested at a military checkpoint and one after being summoned."
"Thirty-nine minors were brought to the prisoners' section in Ofer Prison last April, 20 of them were arrested from houses, 17 from the roads and two after they were summoned," the report adds.
There was no comment from the relevant Israeli authorities on the joint report of the Palestinian institutions.
The Palestinian Prisoners' Club said in a separate statement yesterday that three Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails began an open hunger strike in protest against their administrative detention. Two of them were beaten for 41 days and the third began a strike 18 days ago.
In Jerusalem, a spokesman said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would ask the president to give him more time to form a new government.
Under Israeli law, Netanyahu received an initial 28-day term to form a government with a possible extension of 14 days. The initial period ends on Wednesday. His deadline, if the postponement is approved, will expire on May 29.
Netanyahu is negotiating conditions with all the rightist, nationalist and religious parties that formed his outgoing government. No party in Israel has ever won an absolute majority in the 120-member Knesset, making coalition governments the tradition of political negotiations.