Prisoners' Club calls for international action after allocating a wing for executing Palestinian prisoners
The Palestinian Prisoners' Club called for urgent international action after revealing that the occupation has begun allocating a wing for executing Palestinian prisoners. Club head Abdullah Al-Zaghari said the Knesset passed a law in March mandating the death penalty for those convicted of murder. Israel 24 channel quoted Ben Gvir's office as saying the wing allocation has begun. He noted over 9,400 prisoners and more than 100 deaths inside prisons.
The Palestinian Prisoners' Club called on Wednesday for urgent international action following the revelation that the Israeli occupation has begun allocating a wing for Palestinian prisoners sentenced to death, including a room for carrying out executions. Club head Abdullah Al-Zaghari said in a statement that this step comes within the context of the occupation system's persistence in turning the incitement and legislation it passed into executive measures to execute Palestinian prisoners. Al-Zaghari noted that the Israeli Knesset passed a law last March allowing the application of the death penalty against Palestinian prisoners, stipulating mandatory death sentences for Palestinians convicted of murder before military courts, unless the court decides there are exceptional circumstances allowing the sentence to be commuted to life imprisonment. Israel 24 channel reported on Tuesday, quoting the office of extremist Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, that the occupation has begun allocating the first wing for Palestinian prisoners sentenced to death, to include a special room for carrying out sentences. Ben Gvir appeared in a video from the construction site, boasting about the start of building the wing and execution facility following the passage of the death penalty law. Al-Zaghari considered the preparation to implement the law to execute Palestinian prisoners a "crime against humanity," coming within the context of using the prisoners' issue as a political card, noting they are subjected to killings, abuse, and torture. He added that more than 9,400 Palestinian prisoners are held in occupation prisons, including 92 women and over 370 children, amid harsh conditions including torture, starvation, and medical neglect, according to Palestinian and Israeli human rights institutions. The Prisoners' Club head held the international community responsible for the continuation of these violations, amid what he described as international silence that allowed the occupation to continue its repressive measures against prisoners. He stressed that the international community faces a real test to stop what he described as criminality against prisoners, noting the deaths of more than 100 Palestinians inside occupation prisons due to torture, assaults, sexual violence, malnutrition, and disease spread. Al-Zaghari accused Ben Gvir of seeking revenge against Palestinian prisoners, referring to his repeated incursions into their rooms and cells, and stressed that Israeli measures aim to strip prisoners of their human rights guaranteed by international law.