Israeli Occupation Attempting to Kill Imprisoned Palestinian Political Leaders
Statement by the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs, Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) and Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association
May 20, 2025
Ramallah, occupied Palestine - There are unprecedented systematic attempts and threats by the Israeli occupation’s prison authorities to kill several incarcerated Palestinian political leaders who are being held in solitary confinement, through torture, severe physical assault, and abuse by special armed prison forces, Palestinian prisoner defense and advocacy groups said in a statement on Tuesday.
At the end of March 2025, occupation authorities transferred a group of well-known imprisoned political leaders from solitary confinement in Ramon prison to solitary in Megiddo prison. During the transfer, the detainees were severely physically assaulted, beaten and abused.
The Commission of Detainees’ Affairs, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS), and Addameer Association for Human Rights cautiously monitored the limited information they were able to obtain at the time, fearing that any exposure could intensify the attacks against the detainees. After very difficult efforts to bypass the numerous obstacles placed by the Israeli occupation, a few, very limited and highly-surveilled lawyers visits were conducted to some of these detainees.
Detainees said that the level of violence against detainees surpasses description. Special prison repression forces beat them until their blood flows. They use all kinds of weapons on detainees’ bodies — including batons, boots, and attack dogs equipped with iron helmets. Acts of torture and abuse were accompanied by explicit threats against several of them — warning them that they would be executed and not allowed to leave captivity alive.
Today, the majority of these detainees suffer from wounds, chronic health problems, starvation, weakened immunity and severe weight loss. Many have reported being in such intense pain that they are unable to sleep. The concept of solitary confinement has taken on a far more dangerous dimension for those subjected to it, given the relentless assaults and the constant state of aggression they endure.
It is important to highlight the growing number of arbitrary restrictions imposed by the occupation on legal access to imprisoned political leaders and those serving life sentences — particularly since the beginning of the war on Gaza — including prolonged solitary confinement.
The inhumane conditions in which Palestinian political prisoners are being held represent another facet of the ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip. The continued escalation by the brutal prison system against detainees in various prisons and military camps has entered a more dangerous phase than in previous months. Time has now become a critical factor in determining the fate of thousands of prisoners and detainees held by the Israeli occupation, amid a period in which Israel continues to carry out acts of genocide with complete impunity.
Since the start of the genocide, 69 identified Palestinian political prisoners have been killed behind bars both directly, such as through torture and starvation, and indirectly, such as through denial of their right to medical care. Dozens of other martyred detainees, particularly those who were arrested from Gaza, remain unidentified due to the occupation’s continued refusal to provide any information about them.
In this context, prisoner defense and advocacy organizations hold the Israeli occupation fully responsible for the fate of thousands of Palestinian political prisoners across central prisons and military camps, including prominent figures.
The organizations urgently renew their call on the international human rights system to move beyond rhetoric and take bold, decisive action to hold the leaders of the Israeli occupation fully accountable for the war crimes they continue to perpetrate against the Palestinian people. They demand the immediate imposition of sanctions that would isolate the occupation state on the world stage, strip it of the impunity it has long exploited. The time for statements has passed; only justice, pressure, and accountability can bring an end to this genocide and horrifying paralysis by an occupying force that continues to operate as though it is above law, above justice, and beyond accountability.
As of the start of May 2025, the number of Palestinian political prisoners has exceeded 10,100 — a figure that does not include detainees held in military camps run by the Israeli occupation forces. Among them are 37 female detainees and more than 400 child prisoners. Meanwhile, some 3,577 people arrested in the occupied West Bank are being held without trial or charge under “administrative detention,” and 1,846 people arrested in occupied Gaza are also held without trial or charge under a different legal mechanism, the "unlawful combatants" law.
--ENDS