The Knesset passed a death penalty law, and 118 families of Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences have no way to tell their sons. A total information blackout, in place since October 7, has cut prisoners off from the outside world. Freed prisoners said as recently as February that no news reaches the cells.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Palestinian Prisoner Day, marked on April 17, arrives this year under that silence. Many prisoners still believe the “Flood of the Free” exchange deal has not concluded. A prisoner who has not recovered from the shock of being left behind in that deal now faces the possibility of a death sentence he does not yet know exists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For mothers with nothing else to give, the streets are what is left. Since the law passed, families have marched, held sit-ins, and kept vigils.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Palestinian prisoner institutions and national and Islamic factions held a joint press conference in al-Bireh, Ramallah, on Tuesday, April 14. Abdullah al-Zaghari, head of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, said this year’s commemoration coincides with the passage of the death penalty legislation. The law, the institutions said, is not the beginning of legalized killing but an extension of it. They called for the prisoners’ cause to be raised in every international forum and pledged to carry it for all prisoners, men and women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Conditions inside have never been this bad. Freed prisoners describe detention before October 7 as a “picnic” compared to what followed. The state of emergency declared inside prisons after that date remains in force. Families cannot attend court hearings. Visits are almost entirely banned, and lawyers face limits on what information they can share.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The figures as of early 2026: about 9,600 Palestinian prisoners held by the occupation, 118 serving life sentences. Around 90 are women, most detained for social media posts; 24 of those women are held without charge under so-called “secret files.” About 350 are children, stripped of schooling and childhood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some 3,394 prisoners sit in administrative detention without clear charges. Renewals have exceeded two years in many cases. The practice no longer targets individuals alone. Entire families are held. Hundreds of arrests come on pretexts of “incitement,” attending funerals, or raising flags.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The occupation has stepped up arrests of mothers to pressure their sons into surrendering, and has threatened to demolish homes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cities, villages, and refugee camps across the West Bank, Gaza, and the 1948 territories are preparing marches and public events to mark the day. Solidarity actions are planned in Arab and European capitals, with calls to overturn the death penalty law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Nablus, Umm Kamal al-Jouri has not missed a single event. Her son, Kamal Hani al-Jouri, 26, is serving a life sentence plus 28 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Balata refugee camp held a seminar on the death penalty law on April 14, with Knesset member Ayman Odeh in attendance. A solidarity vigil is set for April 16, a seminar for April 18, a national rally for April 19, and visits to prisoners’ families for April 21.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Talluza, the family of prisoners Fares and Saif Fuqaha faces a six-month administrative detention order against Saif. Fares remains in custody. The family has been threatened with the arrest of the mother, the prisoner’s wife, and their children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Tulkarm, the family of life-sentenced prisoner Muammar Shahrour says he remains in isolation at Megiddo prison under a full blackout. No word about the death penalty law has reached him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jamal al-Hour’s family reports the same silence from Megiddo isolation. His family fears he knows nothing of what is happening outside.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Knesset passed a death penalty law, and 118 families of Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences have no way to tell their sons. A total information blackout, in place since October 7, has cut prisoners off from the outside world. Freed prisoners said as recently as February that no news reaches the cells. Palestinian Prisoner …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[50,47,45,41,39,54,347,32,27,28,33],"class_list":["post-1361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reports","tag-ben-gvir","tag-death-penalty","tag-human-rights-violations","tag-international-conventions","tag-israeli-prisons","tag-killed-in-prison","tag-knesset","tag-october-7","tag-political-prisoners","tag-prison","tag-prisoners"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/asramedia.ps\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/asramedia.ps\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/asramedia.ps\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asramedia.ps\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asramedia.ps\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1361"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/asramedia.ps\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1362,"href":"https:\/\/asramedia.ps\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1361\/revisions\/1362"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asramedia.ps\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/asramedia.ps\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asramedia.ps\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asramedia.ps\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}