Palestinians in the oPt were held this way between 1967 and December 2015,185 with a total of 720 in October 2016.186 This can have a hugely detrimental effect on Palestinians’ ability to maintain normal family and social lives, careers and sense of stability, especially given that these detainees and their families have no idea if and when they will be released or arbitrarily detained again in the future, a practice that amounts to the crime of cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.187 “I was imprisoned eight times and spent almost ten years in jail, the whole time under administrative detention. Administrative detention has a big negative influence on me personally and on my family because you see the injustice of getting imprisoned without knowing the reasons of the imprisonment or how long you will stay. I got used to the instability and the fact that I might, or I will, be imprisoned whenever anything happens, even if it happens in Hebron. For example, one time the soldiers walked into my home in the middle of the night, sat here in the living room and told me they were going to arrest me… When I asked about the reasons, they said “Three kids were kidnapped in Hebron area [the kidnapping of three Israeli youth in June 2014] and this is why you are going to the prison now.” I am from Nablus, and Hebron is far away, but I still got imprisoned for what happened there! So I know I might be imprisoned at any time and I kind of got used to it. However, the family, especially my mother, can never get used to it, simply because when they are prepared to see me and ready for me to be released, my detention gets renewed. Every time they used to take me my mother used to feel that she lost me, and loss is a big thing, and it was hard to see her experiencing these emotions every time they took me or renewed my time in prison. I can't hide that this is also a problem for the prisoner himself, for me. Every time my six months finished, I would prepare myself to go home but then get disappointed because they would give me another six months in prison. It is hard to explain the human and emotional consequences of administrative detention I cannot put in words what I felt and experienced. I would say that administrative detention is similar to death. Does anyone know when they are going to die? Do you know? Administrative detention is the same, you live every moment of your life just as it is the one before the day of imprisonment because you simply don't know when that could happen, but you know that it will happen.” Former Palestinian administrative detainee, Nablus Interview: 24 November 2016 185 Addameer, On Human Rights Day: Israeli Occupation Continues to Carry Out Mass Arrests of Palestinians and Subject them to Abuse, op. cit., 10 December 2015 186 Addameer Statistics, last update: October 2016. Available at: http://www.addameer.org/statistics 187 Amnesty International, Starved of Justice: Palestinians detained without trial by Israel, op. cit., 2012, page 41 53