DaysofPal – The head of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS), Abdullah Al-Zaghari, said that Israel’s decision to renew the state of emergency in its prisons provides official cover for the continued, systematic killing of Palestinian detainees.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, Al-Zaghari said the decision entrenches a set of policies and practices aimed at the slow and deliberate killing of prisoners, turning Israeli prisons into open arenas for torture, starvation, medical crimes, and widespread deprivation. He described these practices as grave and systematic violations of human dignity.
Al-Zaghari warned that renewing the emergency measures would lead to an expansion of deaths among detainees, especially in light of the structural and systematic failure of the international human rights system to meet its legal obligations.
He said the absence of effective deterrent measures has allowed Israel to continue policies of brutality and collective punishment, including serious crimes against prisoners.
He noted that the period following the announcement of the ceasefire agreement witnessed an unprecedented escalation in repression inside prisons. This assessment, he said, is based on dozens of field visits by legal teams and documented testimonies from recently released prisoners, which revealed the use of prohibited weapons in torture, including electric shock devices.
According to Al-Zaghari, ongoing policies of deprivation, combined with severe overcrowding in prison cells, reaching 91 percent according to Israeli authorities’ own admissions, have led to the widespread outbreak of scabies. Thousands of prisoners have been infected, and the disease has contributed to the deaths of several detainees.
He further stated that more than 100 Palestinian prisoners and detainees have died in Israeli custody since the beginning of the genocide. Human rights organizations have documented and identified 87 of these cases, while dozens of detainees from Gaza remain held under enforced disappearance, in a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions.
Al-Zaghari called on the international community to take immediate and concrete action, foremost by compelling Israeli authorities to allow the International Committee of the Red Cross unrestricted access to prisoners and to permit family visits.
He also urged the activation of all international accountability mechanisms, including investigation and prosecution, to bring an end to the ongoing crime taking place inside Israeli prisons.
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