RAMALLAH, 8 January 2026 (WAFA) — The Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs (CDA) and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) regarded on Thursday the request for sentencing a Palestinian in Israeli detention to death penalty a serious escalation.
The CDA and PPS elaborated that the family of the Israeli colonist killed in the case of detainee Ahmad Samer Dawabsha, a resident of Duma town in the Nablus district, submitted a request to an Israeli military court seeking that death penalty be imposed on Dawabsha.
They added that as part of the request, the Israeli colonist’s family demanded the current panel of judges be replaced with higher-ranking judges to rule on the matter, based on the military orders regulating military court proceedings. Accordingly, the court granted the Prosecution and the defense a deadline until 12 January to respond to the request.
They added that this request sets a dangerous precedent, particularly that it comes in the post-Gaza-genocide period and at a time when the current Israeli government is the most fundamentalist ever whose ministers, such as extremist Jewish supremacists such as National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, backed a bill that impose the death penalty on Palestinian prisoners.
They added that this request also comes at a time when the current Israeli government spares no efforts to pass the proposed death penalty bill, backed by Israeli public opinion supportive of this trend.
They further stated that since the onset of the genocide on the Gaza Strip, Israeli occupation forces have killed over 100 Palestinians in Israeli prisoners and detention facilities; the identities of 86 of them have been announced, while dozens of detainees from Gaza who were killed remain anonymous.
They noted that they have repeatedly called for international organizations—foremost among them the International Committee of the Red Cross— to be enabled to visit detainees, examine their harsh conditions, and for detainees’ families to be allowed to visit their imprisoned members.
They also reiterated their call for the imposition of sanctions on Israel, the occupying power, and its leaders and for ending Israel’s impunity, which has been the central factor enabling the occupation forces to continue committing their crimes in full view and hearing of the world.
K.F.
