On Human Rights Day, December 10, Each Year
Palestinian Prisoners’ Club: Number of Palestinian Prisoners in Israeli Prisons Has Doubled, Highest Number of Prisoner Martyrs Since 1967 Recorded
The War of Extermination Raises Serious Questions About the Role of the Rights
System Amid Its Paralysis
10/12/2024 / The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club stated that the number of Palestinian prisoners and detainees
has doubled since the start of the war of extermination. The number currently stands at more than 10,300, in addition to hundreds of detainees from Gaza who are subjected to enforced disappearance in Israeli army camps, most of whom are held under the so-called “Unlawful Combatants” law.
The Club added, in a statement issued on the occasion of International Human Rights Day—observed this year amid an unprecedentedly bloody period for the Palestinian people due to the ongoing war of extermination—that the number of prisoners and detainees who have been martyred since the start of this war has reached 49. These are the martyrs whose identities have been revealed, including 30 martyrs from among the Gaza detainees who have been publicly identified. The occupation continues to conceal the identities of dozens of other martyrs from Gaza, in addition to detainees who were executed in the field but not accounted for, making the current number of prisoner martyrs the highest since 1967 compared to previous periods of uprisings and popular resistance in Palestine.
The Prisoners’ Club noted that these statistics not only reflect a rise in the number of prisoners and martyrs but also indicate an extreme level of brutality and escalating systematic crimes against them. This brutality has led to the death of dozens of prisoners and detainees in Israeli prisons and a record increase in the number of sick prisoners.
Among the most heinous crimes committed during this period is systematic torture, with the occupation turning prisons into arenas of torment and cruelty. Alongside this is the crime of starvation, which has severely deteriorated the health of thousands of prisoners, causing significant weight loss for the vast majority of them. Systematic medical crimes have also worsened, including amputations performed without anesthesia on Gaza detainees in Israeli army camps. One of the most notorious centers of torture is the “Sde Teiman” camp, which emerged as a leading symbol of Israeli savagery.
Sexual assaults against detainees have also surfaced, including documented cases of rape occurring primarily in army camps. These acts are part of a continuous effort to strip Palestinians of their humanity and undermine their pursuit of self-determination and freedom.
The oppressive prison system has worked to strip prisoners of all their hard-won achievements—minimum levels of rights they had secured through continuous struggle over decades. Many prisoners sacrificed their lives for these achievements, and they have engaged in more than 26 mass hunger strikes over the years as part of their ongoing confrontation with the jailers.
Regarding arrest campaigns in the West Bank since the start of the war of extermination, at least 12,000 arrest cases have been recorded. This figure includes those who remain detained and those later released. The arrests targeted all segments of society and were accompanied by unprecedented crimes and violations—extrajudicial executions, using civilians as hostages and human shields, severe beatings, theft of property from homes, threats, intimidation, destruction of homes, and the use of police dogs.
There is no precise data for arrests in Gaza, though estimates suggest they number in the thousands.
The Prisoners’ Club confirms that all the crimes and policies documented through prisoner testimonies affected all prisoner groups, including women, children, the elderly, and the sick.
The occupation has carried out all forms of crimes during the ongoing war of extermination—this period is the bloodiest in Palestinian history. The aims of extermination have extended into the prisons themselves, representing another facet of genocide.
On International Human Rights Day, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club emphasizes that the human rights system has become a system of impotence, shrouded in doubt about its role, confronted with the horrific crimes committed by the occupation under international observation and supported by global powers. Although some legal measures have recently been taken, they are insufficient in the face of this bloody era that has harmed all of humanity. The occupation continues to institutionalize new levels of systematic crimes while remaining exempt from punishment.