Bodies of Freed Palestinians Serve as Live Testimonies of Torture

Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) 
27/2/2025

Ramallah, Palestine – As Palestinians conclude the seven batch of the first phase of the ceasefire and prisoner-exchange deal, some 1,777 political detainees held in the occupation’s custody have been released. Their bodies and appearances bear witness and testimony to the severe crimes they were subject to till the last second, including various forms of torture, severe physical assault, medical deprivation and enforced starvation among many other violations. Such policies, since the start of the genocide have become unprecedented in prevalence. 

At least 60 Palestinian political detainees have been killed, whether directly or indirectly, since October 2023 in the occupation’s central prisons and military camps across the country. The lives of thousands of remaining detainees are at risk. 

In the context of the prisoner releases, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society re-iterates its concerns over the continued existence of the threat of possible re-arrest of freed detainees by the Israeli occupation. Re-arrest of released prisoners is a historical policy that has been practiced by Israel for decades, based on military orders which permit re-arrest and the re-instatement of original sentences based on “secret files”. The occupation uses state-terrorism to oppress the released prisoners and their families, by raiding their homes, assaulting them and their family members and threatening them with re-arrest and murder. 

We remind that there remain over 10,000 identified Palestinian political detainees held in the occupation’s prisons and military camps in extremely difficult conditions, noting that this figure does not include all of those detained from the occupied Gaza Strip after October 7, 2023.