YESTERDAY MARKED PALESTINIAN Prisoners’ Day, when people in the territories occupied by Israel call for the release of the thousands of Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons. 

People held demonstrations yesterday in the occupied West Bank cities of Ramallah, Hebron, Jericho and Nablus.As well as calls for release, the families and friends of those held in detention in Israel also demanded they be allowed to visit them in prison. 

There are currently over 9,000 “security” inmates held in prisons in Israel, compared to around 5,000 in October last year. That figure does not account for the people taken captive in Gaza since October as Israel has not disclosed that number. 

That number includes 2,071 sentenced prisoners, 2,731 detainees awaiting trial and around 3,360 “administrative detainees” being held without trial, according to Israeli human rights organisation Hamoked. 

The number also includes some 200 children, according to the Addameer Palestinian prisoner support and human rights association. 

Detainees are mostly tried in military courts, unlike Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank who are subject to Israeli civil law, and the conviction rate is close to 100%. 

Human Rights Watch has condemned the practice and said it denies Palestinians their basic right to due process. 

Amnesty International said yesterday that “among those languishing behind bars are doctors from occupied Gaza who have been seized from hospitals after refusing to abandon their patients”.

Also imprisoned are “human rights lawyers, Palestinian citizens of Israel, journalists documenting Israeli violations and students protesting the war,” Amnesty added in a post on X.

The transferring of prisoners out of an occupied territory is also a violation of international humanitarian law. Many former prisoners have complained of abuse at the hands of Israeli prison guards, including reports of torture, painful shackling and sleep deprivation.  

Conditions for prisoners have deteriorated since Hamas’ 7 October attacks against Israel, according to Human Rights Watch. 

In a post on social media site X yesterday (originally in Hebrew), Itamar Ben Gvir, Israel’s far-right national security minister, said that prisoners should be executed in order to free up spaces. Ben Gvir talked about plans by the IDF to build additional prison spaces.

“I welcome the fact that most of the ministers have shown responsibility and leadership on this important issue,” he said.

The death penalty for terrorists is the right solution to the incarceration problem, until then – glad that the government approved the proposal I brought.

In February, a group of UN human rights experts called for an investigation into “credible reports” of the killing, rape and beating of Palestinian women in Israeli detention since October last year. 

On Monday, Israel released 150 Palestinians who had been taken from Gaza and many of them alleged they were abused in custody. Among the 150 were two Palestinian Red Crescent Society staff members who had been held for 50 days. 

The Israeli military has denied the abuse allegations. 

Includes reportng from AFP and Reuters

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