Every year on April 17th, Palestinians mark “Palestinian Prisoners\u2019 Day” \u2013 a national and human rights day to amplify the voices of detainees and highlight their suffering inside Israeli occupation prisons. The commemoration, established by the Palestinian National Council in 1974, serves as an annual reminder of one of the longest-standing and widespread Israeli crimes, affecting hundreds of thousands of Palestinians since 1967.<\/p>\n
Data from Palestinian prisoner rights organizations paints a grim humanitarian picture:<\/span> These staggering figures reflect not just the scope of the violations but also expose arrest as a strategic tool of repression by the occupation, meant to strip Palestinians of their rights through a full-spectrum system of oppression, from violent field interrogations to systematic medical neglect.<\/span><\/p>\n Administrative detention is one of Israel\u2019s primary tools of repression. Since 1967, over 60,000 administrative detention orders have been issued against Palestinians without charges or trials, based on undisclosed \u201csecret files\u201d inaccessible to both the detainees and their lawyers, making this form of detention a clear example of forced legal disappearance.<\/span><\/p>\n As of early April 2025, Israel is holding around 3,500 administrative detainees, including 4 women and more than 100 children.<\/span><\/p>\n There are currently more than 9,900 Palestinian prisoners held in 27 prisons, detention centers, and interrogation sites, according to joint reports by the Palestinian Prisoners Club and the Commission of Detainees Affairs.<\/span><\/p>\n Among them:<\/span><\/p>\n Specifically, 1,747 Gaza detainees have been labeled by Israel as \u201cunlawful combatants\u201d as of April 2025.<\/span><\/p>\n Since the start of Israel\u2019s genocidal war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, violations against prisoners have escalated. Human rights organizations have documented the creation of special <\/span>military detention camps<\/b>, such as:<\/span><\/p>\n These camps are run by the Israeli army and lack any humanitarian detention standards. They are sites of enforced disappearance, deny visits from the Red Cross, and use the law itself \u2014 particularly the \u201cUnlawful Combatant Law\u201d\u2014 to legally justify ongoing violations.<\/span><\/p>\n At least 300 Palestinian prisoners have died in Israeli custody since 1967 \u2014 63 of them during the ongoing war. The occupation continues to withhold the bodies of 72 martyrs, the oldest case being Anis Dawla, held since 1980.<\/span><\/p>\n A recent case: 17-year-old Walid Ahmad, who died on March 24, 2025, in Megiddo prison, following systematic torture and starvation, according to legal and human rights testimonies.<\/span><\/p>\n Since Israel\u2019s military campaign began, 16,400 new arrests have been recorded in the West Bank and Jerusalem alone, including:<\/span><\/p>\n This does not include thousands detained from Gaza, who have been transferred to prisons and military camps under complete secrecy \u2014 in conditions that human rights experts describe as “darker than Guantanamo.”<\/span><\/p>\n Human rights reports highlight a surge in the following violations inside prisons:<\/span><\/p>\n Testimonies from Gaza detainees confirm systematic torture methods such as:<\/span> The Israeli authorities actively work to erase evidence of their crimes by:<\/span><\/p>\n Amid this systematic and brutal escalation, the Palestinian Center for Prisoners\u2019 Advocacy renews its call to:<\/span><\/p>\n Every year on April 17th, Palestinians mark “Palestinian Prisoners\u2019 Day” \u2013 a national and human rights day to amplify the voices of detainees and highlight their suffering inside Israeli occupation prisons. The commemoration, established by the Palestinian National Council in 1974, serves as an annual reminder of one of the longest-standing and widespread Israeli crimes, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[128],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-statistics-and-figures"],"yoast_head":"\n
\n<\/span>Since 1967, Israeli authorities have made over one million arrests across all segments of Palestinian society, including over 50,000 children under the age of 18, and nearly 17,000 women and girls, many of whom were minors or mothers.<\/span><\/p>\nAdministrative Detention \u2013 Detention Without any Charges<\/b><\/h2>\n
Current Situation: Over 9,900 Detainees<\/b><\/h2>\n
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Testimonies from Hell: Torture Camps and Total Denial<\/b><\/h2>\n
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Deaths in Detention: 300 Martyrs Since 1967<\/b><\/h2>\n
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Compound Violations: Torture, Starvation, and Rape<\/b><\/h2>\n
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\n<\/span>beatings until unconsciousness, suspension by limbs, electric shocks, and nude interrogations \u2014 amounting to full-fledged war crimes.<\/span><\/p>\nStripping the Prisoners of Everything… Even Their Numbers<\/b><\/h2>\n
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Urgent Appeal to the International Community<\/b><\/h2>\n
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