B’Tselem said in its annual report on human rights in East Jerusalem, West Bank and the Gaza Strip -- which was released on Monday morning — that the Israeli policy contradicts all rules of international law regarding the use of administrative detention, while seriously infringing on detainees’ rights.

The organization said in its 44-page report that Israel is mocking the protection provided by the law, going against freedom and the right for a fair procedure. Administrative detention orders can be given for up to a 6-month period, and are renewable at the expiration of this time. Some prisoners were kept for years under administrative detention.

Regarding the West Bank, the report noted that there had been some improvements for Palestinians, including an 81 percent drop in the number of Palestinians killed by the Israeli forces since the Israeli military offensive on Gaza Strip ended in January 2009.

According to the report, the number of Palestinian victims at the hands of the Israel forces dropped from 456 in 2008 to 83 from January 21, 2009, through the end of April 2010.

These numbers do not include Palestinian deaths that occurred during the Gaza war.

The report added that restrictions on Palestinian movement and access had been reduced in the West Bank in the period covered. In early February 2010, there were 44 staffed checkpoints inside the West Bank, compared with 64 in 2008, according to the report.

The report also noted that only four additional kilometers of the separation wall had been constructed in 2010. It added that changes to the route could connect some of the Palestinian communities that had been separated for six years.

The report said that 44 residential structures were demolished from January 2009 to the end of April 2010. The demolitions left 317 Palestinians homeless. More than half of the demolitions took place in Bedouin communities in the Jordan Valley, according to the report.

In 2009, the Jewish-dominated Jerusalem Municipality demolished 48 buildings in East Jerusalem, in which 247 Palestinians lived, compared with 89 buildings in 2008.

The report notes that in spite of the 10-month moratorium on new settlement construction, the Israeli army had not done enough to stop building in West Bank. It noted that no settlement outposts had been removed.

Israel continues to allow its security forces and occupiers to harm Palestinians or damage their property without being penalized. “The policy according to which security personnel suspected of harming Palestinians are not held accountable for their actions, except in unusual circumstances, remains unchanged,” the report said.

“Israeli citizens who harmed Palestinians or damaged their property have, in general, not borne the consequences for their actions. Even though Israel has declared a freeze on settlement construction, the settlement enterprise continues to undermine the human rights of Palestinians.”

Regarding the Gaza Strip, the report said that most of Gaza’s factories have closed and its water is polluted as a result of Israel’s policy of closing land crossings to all but humanitarian aid.

The closure policy has “led to economic collapse in Gaza,” B’Tselem charged.

According to the report, the prohibition on bringing in raw materials and exports into Gaza, which has been in place since Hamas’s takeover of the Strip in June 2007, forced 95 percent of the factories and workshops in the area to close.

Before 2007, 4,000 types of goods were let into Gaza, compared with 150 that come in now. Among the restricted items are building materials such as iron and cement, which, according to the report, are needed to rebuild the 3,500 homes destroyed during the 2009 war.

The quantity of goods that comes through the crossings is less than one quarter of what entered prior to the restrictions, the report says.

Before 2007, 70 trucks laden with export goods such as furniture, clothing and produce left Gaza daily for Israel. Now, only the export of strawberries and flowers to Europe is allowed in certain instances, according to the report, which notes that goods are coming into Gaza through a system of illegal tunnels set up under the border with Egypt, although the system is not enough to revive Gaza’s economy.

Electricity is a problem in Gaza, according to the report, which states that 98 percent of the residents suffer from blackouts ranging from eight to 10 hours a day, while the remaining 2 percent do not receive any electricity at all.

The power outages and the lack of spare parts have prevented the proper operation of wells and desalination plants, said B’Tselem.

At the end of 2009, studies showed that 93 percent of the Gaza Strip’s water was polluted, with high quantities of chloride and nitrates, said B’Tselem.

“The water supply is defective and thousands of residents are not even connected to the water grid. Waste treatment has also been affected. Every day, some 100,000 cubic meters of untreated or partially untreated waste-water flow into the sea,” the organization wrote in the report.

A lack of pesticides and spare parts for irrigation systems makes it hard for farmers, according to the report. Those with land near the border with Israel can no longer farm because access is forbidden or restricted, and those who violate these orders risk being shot.

Fisherman cannot go out farther than three nautical miles, which limits the Strip’s fish supply, according to the report.

Jessica Montell, B’Tselem executive director, said that the report was being released to mark “the 43rd anniversary” of the end of the June 1967 War, which marked “the beginning” of Israel’s occupation.

“The ongoing occupation both violates” Palestinian rights and “poses clear dangers for Israel’s democracy,” Montell said. “For this reason we as Israelis must demand accountability for actions taken in our name in the occupied territories and work to change in policies that infringe human rights.”