DaysofPal- Israeli policies toward Palestinian detainees have pushed conditions inside prisons to catastrophic levels, effectively turning them into human slaughterhouses and graveyards for the living, the head of a Palestinian rights organization has warned.
In an interview with Sanad News Agency, Ala’ al Sakafi, director of the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, said the current period marks an unprecedented escalation in Israeli treatment of Palestinian prisoners, centered around moves to advance a law allowing the execution of detainees.
Al Sakafi said “The push for an execution law has created deep anxiety and a loss of safety among prisoners.”
“They are now living in a state of constant anticipation and fear of an unknown fate after hope of eventual release had always been present,” he noted.
He argued that Israeli forces are using this legislation and associated measures as a tool of psychological warfare.
“The occupation seeks through these policies to impose a harsh psychological reality on detainees,” he said, adding that the prisoners’ cause has been turned into an electoral card in the Israeli occupation, exploited by far-right parties to harvest votes.
Al Sakafi pointed to repeated statements by far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir in favor of executing prisoners as reflecting the depth of racist and escalatory tendencies within the Israeli government.
According to Addameer’s director, conditions in prisons have deteriorated dramatically since the start of the current war, with widespread reports of daily abuse, punitive measures, and severe restrictions. He described the situation as reaching catastrophic levels.
He cited systematic medical neglect, denial of adequate treatment, food shortages, and the spread of disease as key factors worsening prisoners’ suffering.
“Even the simplest illnesses now pose a real threat to their lives due to the absence of necessary healthcare,” he said.
Al Sakafi said approximately 9,600 Palestinians are currently held in Israeli prisons, including 73 women and around 350 children.
Some 3,442 are held under administrative detention without charge or trial – the highest figure recorded in this category, he added.
Israeli occupation is also holding about 1,250 Palestinians from the Gaza Strip under what it calls the Unlawful Combatants Law, in addition to hundreds of others whose detentions are continually extended under special files and emergency procedures that rights groups describe as arbitrary and aimed at legalizing indefinite detention.
Most prisoners, he said, suffer from multiple health problems linked to poor nutrition and lack of food variety, while the spread of disease inside the facilities has become “a dangerous phenomenon” in the absence of effective treatment.
Field visits to prisons, including Ramla prison, revealed the scale of the health disaster,” he added.
There is hardly a prisoner who does not suffer from a health problem requiring urgent medical intervention, without the necessary treatment being provided.
Al Sakafi argued that the continuation of these policies reflects a clear intention by the occupation to exhaust prisoners physically and psychologically and to turn prisons into environments hostile to life, in violation of all relevant international laws and conventions on human rights.
He called for urgent action by international human rights organizations to investigate ongoing violations and hold those responsible to account. He also urged stepped-up popular and official efforts to keep the prisoners’ issue at the forefront of public attention.
“Protecting the prisoners and defending their rights is a national and humanitarian responsibility,” he said.
“It requires unifying efforts to confront this dangerous phase, end their suffering and guarantee their freedom and dignity.” He added.
Palestinians mark April 17 each year as Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, a national occasion adopted by the Palestinian National Council in 1974.
This year’s commemoration comes as the Israeli Knesset has approved the execution law for prisoners and amid a starvation policy inside prisons.
Events this year are being held under the slogan Together to stop the execution of Palestinians, with central marches planned in West Bank cities and the Gaza Strip, alongside solidarity rallies abroad, demanding urgent international intervention to halt the war crimes against Palestinian detainees.
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