JEDDAH, April 17, 2026 (WAFA) – On the occasion of Palestinian Prisoners' Day, which falls on 17 April every year, the General Secretariat of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Friday expressed deep concern over the deteriorating conditions of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons.
According to the latest figures from Addameer, the Palestinian Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, there are currently 9,600 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli prisons and detention centers, including 342 child prisoners and 84 female prisoners, not to mention detainees from the Gaza Strip, whose number is unknown.
This number includes 3,532 Palestinians placed under “administrative detention”, which allows the detention of Palestinians without charge or trial for renewable intervals ranging between three and six months based on undisclosed evidence that even a detainee’s lawyer is barred from viewing.
The General Secretariat warned of the gravity of the systematic and inhumane crimes against Palestinian prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons, the latest of which is the ratification of the death penalty against them, depriving them of the most basic human rights guaranteed to them by international humanitarian law, including education, treatment, and contact with the outside world, in addition to subjecting them to deliberate and systematic torture and abuse, dehumanization, psychological terrorism, sexual violence, rape, starvation, solitary confinement, and other measures that amount to war crimes and genocide under international criminal law.
The General Secretariat also emphasized that these measures, committed by the Israeli occupation, constitute a violation of all standards and rules stipulated by international humanitarian law, the Charter of Human Rights, the Geneva Conventions, and other relevant international conventions, which require redoubling efforts to prosecute and hold the occupation accountable in accordance with international criminal law.
It also affirmed its continued political, legal and media efforts to strengthen solidarity with Palestinian prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons and communicate their suffering and voice to the whole world and through the competent international forums, including the UN General Assembly, the UN Security Council, the Human Rights Council, the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, in order to defend the rights of Palestinian prisoners and work to achieve freedom, justice and dignity for them.
K.F.
