Addameer for Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association has been closely following the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli occupation prisons on Monday, 13 October 2025. As part of the first phase of the agreement to end the war on Gaza, 1,968 Palestinians were released, including 250 prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment or high sentences, and 1,718 Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, among them two women and 15 children. The occupation authorities forcibly deported 154 of those sentenced to life imprisonment to Egypt, while others were sent to Gaza to be later deported to Egypt as an initial destination.

The released prisoners appeared exhausted and frail, confirming that during the four days preceding their release, they were subjected to various forms of abuse and ill-treatment, including severe beatings, humiliation, prolonged shackling, and threats not to speak to any media outlet about the conditions of their imprisonment. The prolonged suffering inside the occupation’s prisons was evident on their faces and bodies, many had lost dozens of kilograms and were visibly weak and fatigued.

Despite the releases, Israeli occupation forces continue to carry out large-scale arrest campaigns across Palestinian cities, villages, and refugee camps, using imprisonment and deprivation of liberty as tools of control and collective punishment against the Palestinian people. At the same time, grave violations continue against the thousands who remain detained. Currently, there are over 9,100 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, including 52 women, 400 children, and more than 3,544 administrative detainees, in addition to 115 prisoners serving life sentences, nine of whom have been imprisoned since before the signing of the Oslo Accords.

Addameer also warns of the occupation’s ongoing policy of re-arresting prisoners released in exchange deals. As in 2023, Israeli authorities re-arrested 30 former prisoners, including women and children, who had been released in prior exchanges. In 2025, the occupation re-arrested 40 more, later releasing some while keeping 15 in detention. Notably, five cases of children and women were documented as having been re-arrested twice after being released in previous deals.

Addameer affirms that the crimes committed against Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons constitute serious violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, including multiple forms of torture, ill-treatment, deliberate medical neglect, arbitrary detention, and unfair trials all of which amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

There is no period of limitation for these crimes, and they cannot be ignored or waived. Accountability for them represents a legal and moral duty upon the international community, in line with its obligations to pursue perpetrators of grave violations and ensure they do not enjoy impunity.

Accordingly, Addameer calls on the international community, United Nations bodies, human rights mechanisms, and States Parties to the Geneva Conventions to assume their legal and moral responsibilities by ensuring the protection of Palestinian prisoners and holding the Israeli occupation authorities accountable for the crimes committed against them. Such accountability is a fundamental step toward achieving justice, dignity, and freedom for the Palestinian people as a whole.

Addameer stresses that the ongoing starvation, torture, deliberate medical neglect, and deprivation of basic rights suffered by Palestinian prisoners demand urgent action from people worldwide to pressure their governments to take concrete measures to end these practices. This includes working to implement the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice, which reaffirms the illegality of the Israeli occupation and the need to end it, and advancing toward a comprehensive boycott of the occupation at all levels — military, economic, academic, and cultural — as a legitimate and effective means to resist colonialism and apartheid.

Addameer also calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all Palestinian prisoners, the dismantling of the Israeli military court system that fails to meet even the most basic standards of international justice, and intensified political pressure to ensure accountability for all occupation crimes, particularly those committed against prisoners.

Finally, Addameer underscores that the end of war or cessation of hostilities does not erase crimes nor exempt perpetrators from prosecution. The international obligation to ensure accountability remains in force. Those responsible must be prosecuted for all grave violations committed against Palestinian prisoners, and victims must receive redress and compensation, as an essential step toward achieving justice and equity for all Palestinian prisoners and their families.