A/HRC/31/40 on 11 October 2015, an Israeli airstrike directly hit a Palestinian home in Zeitoun, west of Gaza City, killing a pregnant woman and her 2-year-old daughter. IDF claimed they had targeted a known “weapons production site”.40 However, OHCHR did not find any indications of such facilities in the vicinity of the attack, which only impacted the family’s home, a civilian structure, which, under international law, should not be targeted. 55. IDF also reportedly conducted 46 incursions, up to 300 metres into Gaza, levelling the ground and compromising access of local farmers to their livelihoods. B. Palestinian authorities 1. Arbitrary detention and administrative detention 56. During the reporting period, OHCHR documented cases of arbitrary arrests and detentions, mainly of persons affiliated with opposition groups. In particular, mass arrests of individuals with alleged links to Hamas and Islamic Jihad were carried out in early March and early July 2015 in the West Bank. 57. An emblematic case is that of two Hamas activists who were arrested by the General Intelligence Service (GIS) in early February 2015, in Hebron, on charges of money laundering. GIS failed to respect a court order on 18 February for their release on bail and the two men remained in detention on new grounds, namely for “inciting sectarian strife”. The following day, the prosecution introduced an additional indictment for possession of an unlicensed weapon. On 22 February, the two men were granted bail by the court on all charges. Despite the rejection of the prosecution’s appeal, they remained in detention until 3 March. 58. OHCHR inquiries into a number of similar cases revealed that, although the detainees were expecting to be released on bail, their continued detention was sanctioned by administrative orders issued by provincial governors (see A/HRC/28/80, para. 46). Administrative detention also appears to be regularly used to cover the initial days after the arrest, effectively sidestepping the important safeguard of being promptly brought before a judge (art. 9 (3) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights). The Palestinian Independent Commission for Human Rights thus registered 75 complaints of administrative detention during the reporting period. 41 A majority of detainees interviewed by OHCHR also appear to have been held administratively at some stage, while international human rights law stresses the exceptional nature of such detention. 59. OHCHR is concerned about the practice by Palestinian security agencies of detaining people “for their own security”. For instance, Islam Hamed was not released after the completion of a three-year sentence, despite an order from the Palestinian High Court, on 24 November 2014, that his continued detention was illegal. GIS informed OHCHR that the continued detention was for Mr. Hamed’s own safety, as he was under threat from the Israeli security forces. He was eventually released on 21 July 2015, after a two-month hunger strike, when his family had signed a waiver absolving the Palestinian Authority of any liability for his safety. OHCHR has documented other cases where detentions are reported to have taken place “under the order of the Head of Agency”, referring to GIS and the Preventive Security Service. The legal basis of such detentions is unclear. 40 41 12 See www.idf.il/1133-22784-he/Dover.aspx (available in Hebrew only). Monthly reports on website.