The commemoration of Palestinian Prisoners' Day on April 17, 2026, takes place amidst the most severe and perilous conditions in the history of the Palestinian cause. This anniversary coincides with a marked escalation in repressive measures and systematic policies, amounting to what may be described as a "parallel genocide" carried out behind prison walls, far from the eyes of the world.
- Figures Double: 83% Surge in Arrests
Data released by relevant institutions indicate a terrifying surge in the number of detainees, as follows:
- The total number of prisoners has exceeded 9,600, compared to approximately 5,250 before October 2023, representing an 83% increase.
- The West Bank and Jerusalem alone have witnessed over 23,000 arrests since the beginning of the war.
- These arrests have affected vulnerable and internationally protected groups, including more than 700 women and approximately 1,800 children.
- More than 240 journalists have been arrested, of whom 43 remain in detention to date.
- Administrative Detention and “Unlawful Combatants”: Detention without Charges
Nearly half of all Palestinian prisoners face forms of arbitrary detention that lack basic legal safeguards and due procedures. The figures are as follows:
- The number of administrative detainees has risen to 3,532, more than doubling the previous figures.
- The occupation authorities are holding 1,251 individuals, under the designation of “unlawful combatants.”
- Among the administrative detainees are 25 women, out of a total of 86 female prisoners in the Israeli jails.
- Children and the Sick: Denied Childhood and Lost Care
- Approximately 350 children under the age of 18 are imprisoned.
- The systematic denial of medical care has led to a catastrophic decline in the health conditions of prisoners, resulting in a steady increase in the number of sick prisoners facing a slow death.
- Martyrs and the Withholding of their Bodies
- More than 100 detainees have died in Israeli prisons since the start of the war, but only 89 have been identified.
- The fate of a large number of detainees from the Gaza Strip remains unknown (missing).
- The number of bodies held by the Israeli occupation authorities has risen to 97, compared to only 11 prior to the recent escalation.
In this context, the Al-Azhar Observatory for Combating Extremism warns of the grave implications of the Knesset's passage of the "Execution of Prisoners Law," considering it a legalization of extrajudicial killing and an institutionalization of retaliatory policies. The Observatory believes that enacting such law while there are more than 9,600 prisoners—half of whom are detained without formal charge—represents a green light for legally sanctioned mass killings against the Palestinian people, transforming prisons from detention centers into mass execution sites aimed at eliminating the Palestinian presence under the false guise of extremist legislation that violates the most fundamental humanitarian principles and international conventions.
The Observatory also underscore that the timing of this legislation—amid documented patterns of torture, starvation, and deliberate medical neglect inside the prisons— reinforces the conclusion that a "parallel war of extermination" is being waged behind walls, far from the eyes of the international community. It further notes that the insistence of the occupation authorities on imposing death penalty at this time and in parallel with the continued withholding of martyrs’ bodies reflects an extreme colonial mentality aimed at the physical and symbolic eradication of the prisoners’ cause.
Accordingly, the Observatory calls for urgent international intervention to hold the occupying authorities accountable and to halt these practices which represent a critical test for the moral conscience of the international community in the face of the most heinous forms of systematic terrorism.