On the Anniversary of Palestinian Prisoners› Day

The Year of Freedom

for Prisoners and their Liberation from Israeli Occupation Prisons

The annual commemoration of Palestinian Prisoners› Day comes amidst the escalating genocide against our people, especially in the Gaza Strip and throughout occupied Palestine. This day falls on April 17 each year and serves as an international annual occasion to highlight the struggle of Palestinian prisoners and their path to liberation.

Since its establishment in 1974, Palestinian Prisoners› Day has shed light on the struggle of Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons, their leading role in the resistance and ongoing revolution, and the constant demand for the release of all Palestinian prisoners from occupation jails.

The Israeli occupation has arrested at least one million Palestinians since 1948. These arrests have affected all sectors of society, particularly working-class communities in refugee camps, villages, and cities. There is hardly a single Palestinian family that has not been touched by the Israeli detention system. Every Palestinian prisoner is a father, mother, son, daughter, uncle, aunt, relative, friend, or loved one—whom the occupation seeks to isolate from their families, society, people, and even from the Palestinian, Arab, and international movements—behind prison bars.

The Palestinian people, particularly in Gaza, continue to bear the burden of genocide in pursuit of the freedom of Palestinian prisoners. This year has been notable for the release of hundreds of prisoners serving life and long-term sentences, along with more than a thousand others so far, pending the second phase of the upcoming prisoner exchange deal, despite Israel’s arrogance, lack of commitment, and attempts to sabotage the agreement.

Detention has long been a colonial weapon in Palestine—from British colonialism, which suppressed Palestinian revolts through mass arrests, home demolitions, and executions, to Israeli occupation, which over 77 years has imposed a regime of military occupation, apartheid, criminalization, racism, and dispossession on the Palestinian people. The colonizers of Palestine have consistently targeted freedom fighters, leaders, militants, and intellectuals with imprisonment.

Arrests target all sectors of Palestinian society: workers, activists, teachers, journalists, doctors and health workers, farmers, and fishermen; from Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and 1948 occupied Palestine; and also affect refugees in camps inside Palestine and across the world, including millions denied their right of return.

Currently, there are about 9,900 Palestinian prisoners in Zionist occupation prisons, including approximately 3,500 held under administrative detention without charge or trial, based on a «secret file» renewed indefinitely. Palestinians may be detained for years under this system. The number includes 400 children, 29 women, and 200 Palestinians from 1948-occupied territories. However, these figures do not reflect the full scale of the arrests and detentions faced by Palestinians abducted from Gaza by Israeli forces carrying out the genocide.

While 1,000 prisoners from Gaza were freed in the “Flood of Freedom” exchange deal, an unknown number remain detained in various prisons, in addition to infamous torture camps such as Sde Teiman and Anatot, specifically established to hold Palestinians from Gaza under extremely harsh conditions. It is known that at least 1,747 Palestinians from Gaza are being held under the label of «unlawful combatants.»

Palestinian prisoners suffer from systematic and routine torture, mistreatment, denial of medical care, starvation, and physical, sexual, and psychological abuse, along with violations of their fundamental rights. It is important to note that every right achieved by Palestinian prisoners was not granted by the occupation, but rather won through the struggles of the prisoners’ movement, including hunger strikes and organized actions. For years, stripping prisoners of these rights has been a central goal of occupation leaders—from Gilad Erdan to Itamar Ben Gvir.

The International Solidarity Organization with Palestinian Prisoners (Tadamon), in its ongoing support for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, affirms the following:

• The legal necessity to confront field executions against prisoners and detainees, whereby they are interrogated and executed on the spot.
• The need to stop the use of Palestinian prisoners and detained civilians from Gaza as human shields, used by Israeli forces during tunnel and house raids to protect soldiers› lives.
• Immediate demand for the release of thousands of Palestinian detainees from Gaza who are forcibly disappeared and held in Israeli prisons.
• The need to expose and challenge escalating arbitrary administrative detention, which now exceeds 3,500 detainees, in violation of international law and obligations on occupying powers.
• An end to the collective punishment policy targeting prisoners and their families through home demolitions, confiscation of funds, denial of family visits, and deportations, as seen with the deportation of dozens of freed prisoners.
• A stop to the torture policy used immediately after arrest, either in the field or in interrogation centers, involving brutal and serious violations of international humanitarian law.
• The provision of adequate medical care to prisoners and an end to the policy of deliberate medical neglect, which has led to the death of more than 64 prisoners since October 7—an unprecedented toll in the history of the prisoners’ movement.
• An end to the solitary confinement policy of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, including those who are ill and suffer from chronic psychological and physical conditions.
• A halt to Israeli prison authorities› violations, such as storming prisoners› cells, denying family visits, solitary confinement, and depriving them of education.
• The need to continue engaging international and UN bodies to expose Israeli violations against prisoners, especially children and women.
• The necessity of coordination with supporters, allies, and human rights organizations to ensure effective solidarity with Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
• The activation of digital media networks to expose Israeli violations on an international, Arab, and Islamic level through solidarity campaigns—ensuring that advocacy is sustained, not seasonal.
• The importance of working to recover the bodies of deceased prisoners held by Israel, by raising the issue legally, media-wise, and humanitarianly, and establishing an international human rights committee to demand the return of their bodies.
• The cessation of the systematic starvation policy against prisoners, which accelerates deaths in Israeli jails, especially amid worsening health conditions and the widespread skin disease (Scabies) affecting many detainees.
• The moral, humanitarian, and religious obligation compels us to support Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons on all international, regional, and local platforms. They are freedom fighters and rightful resisters of the last colonial occupation of the 21st century.

The International Solidarity Organization

with Palestinian Prisoners

         adamon