The Palestinian Center for Prisoners Advocacy strongly condemns the storming of Ofer Military Prison by Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, describing the move as a dangerous escalation and a new, blatant violation of international standards governing the treatment of prisoners and detainees.
The Center stresses that this step cannot be separated from the hardline approach long associated with the minister’s rhetoric and policies regarding Palestinian prisoners. His positions have consistently called for tightening measures against them and stripping them of basic rights. In addition, he has repeatedly supported and sponsored legislative initiatives advocating the death penalty for Palestinian prisoners and has personally followed this file, raising serious concerns about the potential consequences of these policies on prisoners’ lives and their humanitarian and legal conditions.
The Center further emphasizes that such incursions, carried out amid an already tense political and security climate, constitute psychological and moral pressure on prisoners and their families. These actions fall within a broader pattern of ongoing restrictions that contradict the principles of international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions.
It also affirms that detention facilities must remain outside the sphere of political theatrics and provocative measures, given their direct impact on the safety, humanitarian stability, and living conditions of prisoners. Accordingly, the Center calls on international and human rights institutions to assume their responsibilities by conducting urgent monitoring visits to detention and incarceration facilities. It urges the international community to exert pressure to halt any measures that undermine prisoners’ dignity and fundamental rights. The Center also calls upon media outlets to shed light on the conditions of prisoners and to report their suffering in a professional and responsible manner.
The Center renews its commitment to pursuing the legal and human rights advocacy of prisoners and to working with international partners to ensure full and uncompromised respect for their human rights.
Palestinian Center for Prisoners Advocacy
Saturday, February 14, 2026
