Ramallah: The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS) has confirmed that Israeli Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir is intensifying his public incitement, advocating for a systematic policy of genocide within Israeli prisons through repeated calls for the execution and torture of Palestinian detainees.
According to Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA, these inflammatory statements are being widely disseminated on social media platforms, backed by a powerful media apparatus that operates as a central component of Israel’s brutal regime. The PPS highlighted that this incitement aligns with legislative actions within the Knesset aimed at enacting laws that would authorize the execution of Palestinian detainees and establish special courts lacking judicial safeguards to try detainees from the Gaza Strip.
The PPS stated that these legislative initiatives, which have begun receiving preliminary approvals, signify a significant and dangerous shift towards legitimizing crimes against detainees and transforming executions into legally sanctioned actions. Recently released Palestinian detainees have provided testimonies revealing unprecedented levels of brutality and crimes inflicted upon them during their arrests and detentions, particularly since the onset of the Israeli offensive on Gaza.
The PPS emphasized that the accounts from released detainees, along with the bodies of recently returned martyrs, uncover atrocities and systematic field executions against Gaza detainees, necessitating an urgent and independent international investigation. The organization pointed out that the policy of extermination persists within prisons, with extreme right-wing parties exploiting the issue of detainees as a tool for incitement and electoral gain, with leaders competing to display greater cruelty towards Palestinian detainees.
This approach, the PPS noted, is not a temporary behavior but a deeply ingrained policy within the occupation regime’s structure and practices for decades. Alongside other relevant institutions, the PPS reiterated that the situation in Israeli prisons represents an extension of the genocide war, with the reported numbers of martyrs among detainees only reflecting a fraction of the extensive crimes and violations, including physical and psychological torture, starvation, denial of medical treatment, humiliation, and sexual assault.
The PPS called upon the international community to establish an independent and comprehensive investigation committee into the crimes against Palestinian detainees, which include premeditated killings and field executions categorized as genocide. Furthermore, the organization urged the International Committee of the Red Cross to immediately resume prison visits and press the occupation authorities to allow detainees’ families unrestricted visitation rights.
According to PPS, more than 9,100 Palestinian detainees remain in Israeli custody, with hundreds more held in Israeli military camps.