GENEVA, April 8, 2026 (WAFA) – Palestine’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva, Ambassador Ibrahim Khreishi, sent identical letters to UN member states’ missions, international organizations, and relevant UN bodies, emphasizing the gravity and illegality of the Israeli occupation’s legislation on the death penalty for Palestinian detainees.

Khreishi addressed his letters to all diplomatic missions, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the heads of the International Labor Organization, the World Health Organization, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the World Council of Churches, and the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

He also reached out to UN human rights treaty bodies, including the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, the Committee Against Torture, the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances.

The letters addressed the ongoing arbitrary policies of the Israeli occupation against detainees in its prisons, calling on international organizations to take immediate, urgent, and decisive action.

They also highlighted the dangers of the new Israeli legislation allowing the imposition of the death penalty by hanging on Palestinian detainees, describing it as a serious escalation within a colonial system based on racial segregation and a grave violation of international law, including the right to life, the prohibition of torture and discrimination, and the guarantees of a fair trial.

The letters also reviewed the conditions of detainees held by the Israeli occupation, whose number exceeds 9,600, including women and children, noting that they are subjected to torture, ill-treatment, psychological pressure, medical neglect, and sexual violence, in addition to administrative detention, deprivation of basic guarantees, and denial of access to relevant organizations, foremost among them the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The letters relied on several international legal frameworks, including human rights charters and treaties, and emphasized the responsibility of the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to ensure its respect and effective implementation.

The letters also referred to the opinions of the International Court of Justice, particularly the advisory opinion confirming the illegality of the Israeli occupation’s practices and the international community’s duty not to recognize them or assist in their continuation, and emphasized the necessity for Israel, the occupying power, to respect the principles of international law, including the prohibition of torture, the prohibition on transferring detainees, and the International Committee of the Red Cross’s right to visit detainees.

The letters called on states, as High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention, to fulfill their legal responsibilities by ending the occupation, protecting Palestinian detainees and the Palestinian people, and pressuring Israel to repeal the death penalty law.

The letters emphasized the importance of pressuring Israel to allow the International Committee of the Red Cross to access all detention sites regularly and without obstacles, and the need for joint efforts to protect the Palestinian people and ensure detainees’ rights to life, liberty, and dignity.

They called on international organizations to use their mandates and tools to publicly denounce the new death penalty law, highlight its incompatibility with international law, and demand its clear repeal, in addition to intensifying monitoring, documentation, and issuing urgent reports and appeals on detainees’ conditions.

The letters also stressed the need to integrate the issue of detainees, including the death penalty law, into political dialogues and public communications, ensuring adherence to the principle of non-recognition and withholding assistance for violations.

T.R.