May 26, 2025

The following statement was posted by Resistance News Network Prisoners on May 24, 2025.

The Palestine Center for Prisoner Studies has warned that the “israeli” occupation persists in its deliberate policy of slowly killing Palestinian detainees through systematic torture, starvation, medical neglect and relentless repression — especially targeting those from the Gaza Strip. To date, seventy prisoners have been killed in “israeli” jails over the past twenty months.

The center accuses the occupation of engineering these deaths in a calculated manner, normalizing prisoner martyrdoms so that each new death no longer registers as a notable event demanding investigation or accountability, even superficially. As a result, no soldiers or officers are ever held responsible for the killings.

Since October 7, 2023, the occupation has also enforced a policy of enforced disappearance for Gaza’s detainees, refusing to disclose their true numbers, detention conditions or even their locations. Dozens of prisoners have died under this veil of secrecy; their names and circumstances of death are withheld, leaving families in perpetual anguish, unsure whether their loved ones remain alive or have already perished.

Only yesterday, authorities belatedly notified the Center of the death of 33-year-old Amr Hatem Odeh from Gaza, who died under torture in “Sde Teman” Prison in December 2023 — nearly a year and a half ago. His martyrdom was announced now only after sustained pressure from rights organizations.

A week earlier, “israel” revealed the deaths of three Gaza detainees previously listed as missing: Ayman Abdel-Hadi Qudeih, killed nineteen months ago; Bilal Talal Salama, executed nine months ago; and Mohammad Ismail al-Astal, executed three weeks before any deaths were disclosed. These delayed admissions confirm that many more prisoners have been secretly executed without any official acknowledgment.

The Center emphasizes that since October 7, 2023, “israeli” authorities have escalated their campaign of prisoner killings through brutal torture forbidden by international law, deliberate medical neglect of the sick and injured, severe and worsening starvation that collapses bodies and spreads disease, inhumane detention conditions and practices so unethical they constitute sexual violence against detainees.

Since 1967, 307 Palestinian prisoners have died as martyrs. Of these, seventy have perished since the current war on Gaza began — 44 of them from the Gaza Strip, comprising 62% of all prison martyrs during this period. “Israel” continues to withhold the bodies of 79 of its prison martyrs, including 68 who died since the Gaza assault began, denying families the dignity of burial.

These actions, the Palestine Center asserts, amount to unquestionable war crimes. The center calls on the international community and human-rights organizations — already recognizing Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza — to document and prosecute those responsible for the calculated extermination of Palestinian prisoners, particularly in “Sde Teman,” “Ofer” and “Negev” prisons under an extremist government that shields perpetrators from accountability.