The Palestinian Center for Prisoners Advocacy condemns Israeli Knesset’s approval, by majority vote, of a law that allows the execution of the prisoners of October 7 and prevents their release in any future exchange deals. This dangerous step reflects the extent of the vengeful and fascist tendency governing Israel’s treatment of Palestinian prisoners, especially prisoners from the Gaza Strip.
The Center views this law as a continuation of a dangerous path of bloody legislation and policies targeting Palestinian prisoners. It brings back to the forefront the execution law approved by Israel last month, which clearly exposed a mentality that now sees prisoners as recurring opportunities for revenge and political gloating, rather than as human beings with rights guaranteed by humanitarian laws and norms.
The Center notes that official Israeli discourse is no longer limited to incitement against prisoners or justifying abuse against them inside prisons. Rather, it has moved toward attempting to legalize killing and executions through legislation, amid an unprecedented rise in public calls by ministers and Knesset members demanding the execution and abuse of Palestinian prisoners.
The Center points out that the new law targets prisoners from the Gaza Strip who were detained in the Gaza envelope area during the period from October 7 to October 10, 2023. It also includes other prisoners whom Israeli authorities claim are connected to the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operations, or even to roles related to the prisoners’ file in Gaza, including guarding or support. This reveals the widening scope of targeting and the attempt to turn the prisoners’ issue into an open arena for revenge.
The Center affirms that this escalation comes at a time when hundreds of detainees and missing persons from the Gaza Strip remain of unknown fate, as Israel continues to hide them inside prisons, camps, and secret detention centers, while refusing to reveal their places of detention or their health and humanitarian conditions. Meanwhile, the number of detainees Isreal has acknowledged holding so far does not exceed around 1,200, raising serious concerns about the fate of large numbers of missing persons whose news has been cut off since their arrest during the war on Gaza.
The Center believes that the danger of these laws is multiplied by what Gaza prisoners are being subjected to inside detention centers: torture, starvation, isolation, and systematic abuse, alongside the continued complete blackout over the conditions of many of them, and the prevention of human rights organizations and legal teams from reaching them or documenting what they are being subjected to.
The Center also stresses that one of the most dangerous aspects of this law is the attempt to prevent the release of prisoners in any future exchange deals. This is a clear effort to strip them of any prospect of freedom and to treat them as permanent targets of political and public revenge inside Israel.
The Center believes that Israel, having failed to break the will of the prisoners through torture, starvation, and daily violations inside prisons, is now attempting to use laws as an additional tool for killing and liquidation. This reflects a dangerous moral and political decline within Israel’s institutions, which have come to treat Palestinian blood as material for political bidding and achieving partisan goals.
The Center warns that continued international silence toward these laws and inciting statements gives Israel cover to continue its aggressive policies against prisoners, especially amid escalating crimes against Gaza prisoners inside Israeli detention centers and prisons.
The Palestinian Center for Prisoners Advocacy calls on international, human rights, and humanitarian institutions to act urgently to stop this dangerous escalation, reveal the fate of the missing and detained people of the Gaza Strip, and pressure Israel to release the prisoners and stop its policies of revenge and abuse against them.
The Center affirms that the prisoners’ cause will remain a cause of freedom and national and human dignity, and that Israel’s attempts to legalize killing and execution will not succeed in breaking the will of the prisoners or eliminating their cause.
Palestinian Center for Prisoners Advocacy
Tuesday, May 12, 2026
