File photo: Palestinian prisoners captured in the Gaza Strip by Israeli forces at a detention facility on the Sde Teiman military base in southern Israel. AP
Palestinian Prisoners' Day is annually observed on 17 April, a date designated by the Palestinian National Council in 1974 to honour the struggle of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
The 20th Arab Summit, held in late March 2008, approved the observance of this day every year across all Arab countries in solidarity with Palestinian and Arab prisoners in Israeli detention.
On this occasion, events and marches are held across the Palestinian territories, as well as in refugee camps outside of Palestine, to draw attention to the Palestinian detainees' suffering and the ongoing violations they endure.
Since early April, over 9,900 Palestinians have been imprisoned in Israeli jails, according to a joint statement by Palestinian detainees' rights organizations. These include at least 400 children and 27 women.
Additionally, administrative detention has increased unprecedentedly, with 3,498 detainees held without charge or trial, including over 100 children and four women.
The organizations also reported that 64 Palestinian detainees had died in Israeli prisons since the war started in Gaza, including 40 from Gaza alone.
These are only the cases in which identities were confirmed, as the crime of enforced disappearance continues to obscure the true extent of deaths in Israeli custody.
Furthermore, the groups highlighted that systematic torture, starvation, medical neglect, and sexual assaults — including rape — are the primary causes of the rising death toll among Palestinian prisoners.
Testimonies from detainees, conveyed by legal teams and documented by those recently released, have painted a disturbing picture of the conditions inside Israeli prisons.
Gaza detainees, in particular, have described shocking levels of torture, humiliation, repeated beatings, and deprivation of basic necessities.
Moreover, solitary confinement has had severe psychological effects on many detainees, the groups noted.
Since 7 October 2023, the number of arrests among Palestinians has surpassed 16,400. This number includes over 510 women and 1,300 children.
Thousands more were arrested from Gaza alone, but the number is still unknown, as enforced disappearances remain one of the occupation's most egregious crimes.
So far, this shameful Israeli war on Gaza has killed and injured over 167,000 Palestinians, the majority of whom were women and children. Over 11,000 people are still missing.
In addition, the Israeli army and settlers have intensified their attacks in the West Bank, including in occupied Jerusalem, killing at least 950 Palestinians and injuring nearly 7,000, according to official Palestinian figures.
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