Further evidence has emerged of the systematic crimes and brutal practices of the Zionist officials against Palestinian prisoners. Three prisoners, who had been abducted from Gaza, and died inside the occupation’s prisons and military camps, have been named by the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) and the Commission of Detainee’s Affairs.

Palestinian prisoners abused by Zionist regime

Taysir Sabbaba, 60, was killed in December 2024, just two months after his arrest. Khamees Ashour, 44,  was killed in February 2024, one day after his arrest. Khalil Haniyeh, 35, was killed on December 25 last year, nearly a year after his arrest. Although the occupation killed these detainees some time ago, their families have only recently been notified.

These killings were committed as part of an official and deliberate policy, practiced away from any international oversight or accountability. Thousands of prisoners have been forcibly disappeared. Their fate is unknown, while hundreds of detainees bodies have also been withheld.

Palestinian political detainees are imprisoned under conditions violating their humanity and dignity. They endure crimes such as systematic torture, deliberate starvation, medical neglect, and physical and sexual abuse.

The most violent period in the history of the Palestinian prisoner’s movement

According to these two Palestinian prisoner’s rights groups, many of the detainees martyred after their abduction from Gaza remain forcibly disappeared. Dozens were also executed by the occupying army in the field. The bodies of detainees returned after the ceasefire, provide clear evidence of these systematic executions.

Lawyers of the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the PPS, carried out dozens of visits to political prisoners during November. They detail the horrific maltreatment and overall conditions for detainees. They also document an escalation in the scale of attacks, particularly through the use of electric shocks, rubber coated bullets, and the exploitation of injuries suffered by the wounded who are further tortured by being denied medical treatment.

The last two years has become the most violent in the history of the Palestinian prisoner movement. Physicians for Human Rights-Israel reveals the details of at least 94 Palestinian prisoners killed while in Israeli occupation detention, since 7 October, 2023. All died from medical neglect, malnutrition, assault or torture. This increased violence and abuse comes at a time when the occupation is attempting to legalise the execution of Palestinian prisoners.

90 percent of prisoners held in cells no more than three metres square, for 23 hours a day

The rapid deterioration of conditions for Palestinian political prisoners has surprisingly also been documented by the occupation. The Israeli ‘Justice’ Ministry’s Public Defender’s Office reports that the last two years “reflect one of the most severe incarceration crises”. It say detainees are “beaten almost daily” by Israeli officials. According to the inspectors, 90 percent are held in cells smaller than three square metres, for 23 hours a day. There is no lighting or ventilation. Thousands did not have a bed. According to the report, violence by the occupation’s prison guards is “a routine occurrence”, as is “severe hunger”. Scabies has also reached “epidemic proportions”, and is affecting many inmates.

Sexual abuse and torture by Israeli occupation forces against Palestinian detainees have also become widespread and normalised. This is especially true for those from Gaza, as testimonies from recently released detainees reveal. Rape, forced nudity, physical violence, and sexual assault, including via objects and trained dogs are not isolated abuses. They are part of a broader intentional pattern aimed at dehumanizing Palestinians, held in military camps beyond international oversight.

No one has been spared from the Zionist regime’s carceral system – children, women, older people and sick people are all similarly abused.

Israel’s mass abduction campaign has become a central pillar of its ongoing genocide, driving the number of Palestinian hostages to levels unseen in decades. Before October 7, 2023, Israeli occupation prisons held about 5,250 Palestinians, but systematic raids that followed… pic.twitter.com/PqwqICkIE0

— Translating Falasteen (Palestine) (@translatingpal) November 28, 2025

Israeli occupation tortures former Palestinian MPs

75 year old administrative detainee, Mohammad Abu Tair, is from Jerusalem. The PPS says ‘Israel’s’ recent decision to transfer him to Rakevet, the underground wing of Ramla prison, is “effectively a death sentence” for him. Detainees in Rakevet report being denied sunlight and medical care, while often being beaten and starved. Rakevet was reopened at the start of the genocide. It has been the setting for unprecedented atrocities against detainees from Gaza. Abu Tair is the first documented detainee from the West Bank to be held in Rakevet since October 2023.

This treatment continues the long-standing policy of retaliation against a man who has intermittently spent, according to the PPS, around 44 years in ‘Israeli’ prisons. Most of this time has been spent in administrative detention. One of nine former Palestinian MPs to be detained, the Israeli occupation expelled Abu Tair from his home in Jerusalem, in 2010, and later had his Jerusalem ID revoked.

Since the start of the genocide in Gaza, according to the PPS, there has also been an “unprecedented escalation of mass arbitrary arrests” by the Israeli occupation authorities. Before 7 October, 2023, Israeli occupation prisons held about 5250 Palestinians. But large scale arrests over the past two years caused this figure to more than double, reaching more than 11,000 by September 2025 – a record figure. There have been nearly 21,000 arrests of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem since October 2023. Many are arbitrarily detained without trial or charge, either under “administrative detention” or as “unlawful combatants”. As of November 30, 2025, there were 3368 administrative detainees, while unlawful combatants numbered 1205 – a figure that does not include all of the Gaza detainees.

Time for governments to stop false expressions of concern

There is an urgent legal obligation on states to act, on the scale and deliberateness of the torture, forced disappearances, and executions inside Israeli prisons. Decades of exceptional impunity granted by the international community has enabled this a system of abuse that now constitutes war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The situation has crossed every red line. Immediate, coordinated intervention is essential to stop ongoing atrocities and protect thousands of detainees at imminent risk. This requires a comprehensive arms embargo; the activation of universal jurisdiction to prosecute perpetrators; the suspension of all diplomatic, military and economic cooperation with the occupying power; and sustained boycotts, divestments and targeted sanctions. The unconditional release of all Palestinian political prisoners and full cooperation with the International Criminal Court, including execution of arrest warrants is also urgently needed.

Featured image via the Canary

By Charlie Jaay

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