DaysofPal – Days after the UN denounced Israeli legislation that might permit the execution of Palestinian detainees by hanging, activists on Thursday began a global advocacy campaign demanding the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Unveiled in London, the Red Ribbons Campaign builds upon a project that started there two months ago. Activists have been placing red ribbons and photographs of Palestinian prisoners in public spaces to draw attention to their continued detention and raise global awareness of prison conditions.
Campaign organizers say Israeli authorities are currently holding at least 9,000 Palestinians unlawfully, including more than 400 children and at least 150 medical workers from Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Expanded Powers and Death Penalty Concerns
The campaign’s launch comes amid mounting alarm over new Israeli legislation that grants prison authorities sweeping powers, including extending detention periods, preventing the release of prisoners who have completed their sentences, and introducing the death penalty in cases that would apply almost exclusively to Palestinian prisoners.
Campaign founder Adnan Hmidan said the initiative aims to expose the detention of the “real hostages” inside Israeli prisons.
“What is happening inside Israeli prisons is no longer a series of isolated abuses,” Hmidan said. “It has become a fully developed system of humiliation and systematic torture, now being legalized through explicitly racist laws.”
Palestinian prisoners’ rights organizations have long accused Israel of widespread torture, physical and sexual abuse, prolonged solitary confinement, and systematic medical neglect. Since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza, reports of overcrowding, starvation-level food rations, and deaths in custody have increased, particularly among detainees from the Gaza Strip.
The campaign highlighted the case of pediatrician Hussam Abu Safiya, who was seized by Israeli forces during a raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza in December 2024 after refusing to abandon patients under siege.
Footage recorded after the attack showed Abu Safiya wearing a white medical coat while walking through rubble-filled streets. The Israeli military later said he was being held as a “suspect” and questioned over alleged “terrorist activity.” He has since been detained without charge.
In July, lawyer Ghaid Ghanem Qassem revealed that Abu Safiya had lost more than a third of his body weight while held in Israel’s Ofer prison. She said he was subjected to severe beatings and repeatedly denied medical care.
Administrative Detention and UN Warnings
Administrative detention, which allows imprisonment without charge or trial based on secret evidence, has been widely condemned by human rights organizations as a form of collective punishment. Under the system, detainees can be held indefinitely through renewable orders, often without being informed of the allegations against them.
As of January 2026, at least 3,300 Palestinians were detained in administrative detention, according to the Israeli human rights organization HaMoked.
Earlier this month, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights urged Israel to abandon legislation that would impose the death penalty almost exclusively on Palestinians, warning of irreversible miscarriages of justice.
“When it comes to the death penalty, the United Nations is very clear and opposes it under all circumstances,” UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk said. “It is profoundly difficult to reconcile such punishment with human dignity and raises the unacceptable risk of executing innocent people.”
Türk added that the proposed legislation is discriminatory by design and appears intended to apply only to Palestinians, many of whom are convicted following trials criticized for failing to meet international standards of fairness.
Hmidan said the Red Ribbons Campaign aims to “break international silence, mobilize global public opinion, and pressure relevant institutions” to act against Israel’s unlawful detention practices.
He also accused Israel of attempting to rehabilitate its international image following the fragile October 2025 ceasefire while continuing the genocide in Gaza, annexation efforts in the West Bank, and escalating violations in Jerusalem and across the occupied Palestinian territories.
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