The Reality of Palestinian Prisoners in Israeli Jails After October 7

Introduction:

Since the beginning of 2023, the Israeli right-wing government has pursued a policy of tightening the detention of prisoners, adopting a series of legal measures aimed at legalizing arrest operations, issuing a set of amendments to military orders to expand arrest operations, and moving to enact a set of military orders and amendments to previous laws that have aggravated the reality of prisoners day after day. As of the writing of this paper, nearly ten thousand prisoners are still resisting the Prison Service and the Israeli army's forces with their emaciated bodies and empty stomachs; but their strong will is capable of halting the daily repression practiced by the various prison units, as what the prisoners endure inside the prisons is a microcosm of Palestinian struggle and dignity.

Since occupying the Palestinian territories in 1967, the occupation state has arrested more than a million Palestinians, some of them more than once, in addition to thousands of soldiers, Arab citizens, and international solidarity activists. The proportion of Palestinian detainees to the total number of Palestinians is the highest of any people, reaching about 20% of the Palestinian people, who have tasted the horrors of the Israeli jailer, and this proportion increased significantly during 2023–2024, coinciding with the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, and the pace of the Israeli assault rose in all Palestinian cities.

This paper discusses the conditions of prisoners in the occupation's jails during the Al-Aqsa Flood war, from October 7 until early May 2024, in terms of the increase in arrests, and the conditions of detainees, while shedding light on the conditions of Gaza Strip prisoners and their classification within the prisons.

Prisoners in the Israeli prisons can be classified into three categories:

- Palestinian prisoners distributed across the Israeli prisons, classified as "security"/"political" prisoners, both before and after October 7.

- Residents of Gaza who were present within the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967, under work permits or for medical treatment needs, most of whom were handed over to the Israeli army.

- Prisoners from Gaza, from Hamas and other factions, who were arrested on October 7, and were taken captive because they entered the Palestinian territories occupied on October 7, while others were captured during the ground invasion of the Gaza Strip.

Prepared by: Dr. Elham Shamali