The Palestinian people in Palestine and the diaspora commemorate the Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, April 17 of each year, after the day was adopted by the Palestinian National Council in the year 1974 as a national day for the freedom of detainees in Israeli prisons, to unite all activities to support their struggle and their legitimate right to be liberated.
Since that date, Palestinian Prisoner’s Day has been a day that the Palestinian people commemorate annually wherever they are, in Palestine and in the diaspora, in various ways and forms, to remind the world of the Palestinian detainees, their suffering, and what Israel subjects them to.
Israel’s violations include some of the worst forms of torture and abuses, in grievous breaches of all international and humanitarian law and conventions, especially international humanitarian law, the Fourth Geneva Convention, human rights principles, and the Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
April 17 was chosen to commemorate Prisoner’s Day, as it witnessed the release of the first Palestinian prisoner, Mahmoud Bakr Hijazi, under the first prisoner exchange deal between the Palestinian resistance and the Israeli occupation.
Also, the 20th Arab Summit in late March 2008, in the Syrian capital Damascus, approved the adoption of this day every year to be marked in all Arab countries, in solidarity with Palestinian and Arab prisoners in Israeli jails.
Various Detainees’ organizations have reported that the number of detainees in Israeli occupation prisons has exceeded 9,500, including 80 female detainees, and more than 200 children, and added that the numbers do not include all Gaza detainees who are subject to the crime of (forced disappearance).
In a fact sheet prepared and reviewed by the various detainees’ organizations on what the detainees have been facing since October 7, the number of administrative detainees increased to more than 3,660 until the beginning of April, including 22 women and more than 40 children.
In addition to the sharp increase in the number of sick detainees, the number of detainees classified by the occupation as “unlawful combatants” reached 849, and the number of imprisoned journalists is now at least 56, 45 of whom were abducted after October 7, and are still in detention, including 4 female journalists.
Furthermore, the number of old detainees reached 21 after Waleed Daqqa recently died due to medical neglect in an Israeli prison after serving 38 years in prison, despite completing his prison term in February of last year, 2023.
The oldest detainee is Mohammad Al-Tous from the town of Al-Jab’a in Bethlehem governorate, who has been imprisoned since 1985.
The number of detainees serving life sentences is about 600; the highest prison sentence issued by Israel is against Abdullah Barghouti, who was sentenced to 67 life terms, followed by Ibrahim Hamed with 54 life terms.
The number of detainees who died in Israeli prisons since 1967 is 252 after 16 detainees recently died inside the occupation prisons from torture and medical neglect; the number does not include all the detainees who died after October 7, as Israel refuses to release information regarding their names and numbers.
There are also 27 deceased or killed detainees whom Israel continues to refuse the release of their bodies, including Anis Doula, whose body has been held since 1980.
Furthermore, the Israeli army abducted 8,270 Palestinians in the West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem, since October 7, 2023, among them about 275 women, 520 children, and 66 journalists, including 45 journalists who were slapped with Administrative Detention orders without charges or trial.
The ongoing abduction campaigns carried out by the Israeli occupation army since October 7 have been accompanied by escalating crimes and violations, including severe beatings, torture, threats against detainees and their families, widespread sabotage and destruction of citizens’ homes and property, confiscation of vehicles, money and gold and jewelry, in addition to massive destruction of infrastructure, especially in Tulkarem and Jenin.
Also, the Israeli army conducted field executions, including of members of the detainees’ families, and escalated field interrogations.
The figures do not include information about the number of abductees from the Gaza Strip, due to the ongoing genocide and Israel’s refusal to disclose any information, in addition to its policy of forced disappearance, although their numbers are estimated to be in the thousands.
The army also abducted hundreds of workers from the Gaza Strip in the West Bank, in addition to citizens from Gaza who were receiving medical treatment in the West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem.
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