This came in a joint statement by the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs (governmental), the Prisoner Club (non-governmental), and the Al-Dameer Foundation for Human Rights (non-governmental).
The statement said that the number of prisoners in the occupation prisons reached 9,500, noting that the number of prisoners increased during March by 2.15% compared to the previous month. It explained that the number of female prisoners in the occupation prisons reached 73, and that the number of child prisoners reached 350, who are being held by the Israeli authorities in Megiddo and Ofer prisons.
The data indicates that the number of administrative detainees (without charge) reached 3,442 detainees, which is the highest among the categories of convicted prisoners, detainees and those classified as “unlawful fighters,” as they constitute about 36% of the total number of detainees.
The number of those classified by the Israeli authorities as “unlawful combatants” is 1,249 detainees, noting that this number does not include all detainees from the Gaza Strip held in camps belonging to the Israeli occupation army and classified in this category.
This classification also includes Arab detainees from Lebanon and Syria, according to the data.
Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons suffer from torture, starvation, and medical neglect, which has led to the death of dozens of them, according to Palestinian and Israeli human rights reports.
Reports have warned of torture campaigns targeting Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, which have escalated since October 2023, coinciding with the war of extermination in Gaza.
Closing Al-Aqsa
In a related context, the Palestinian Presidency condemned on Wednesday Israel’s continued closure of the Al-Aqsa Mosque to worshippers, preventing them from performing religious rites there during the holy month of Ramadan.
The presidency said in a statement that these measures represent "a serious infringement on the historical and legal status of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and religious sites in the occupied city of Jerusalem," according to the official Palestinian news agency WAFA.
She warned against Israel exploiting the atmosphere of tension and escalation in the region to harm Islamic and Christian religious sites, and stressed that these actions "clearly violate international law, which stipulates freedom of worship for believers in the holy city."
She expressed her rejection of the "provocative measures against Al-Aqsa Mosque and the worshippers," demanding that its doors be opened to worshippers and that their access to it not be hindered, especially during the month of Ramadan. The Palestinian Presidency reiterated that the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, with its entire area of 144 dunams (a dunam equals one thousand square meters), is "a special place of worship for Muslims."
Since February 28, Israel has closed the Al-Aqsa Mosque and prevented prayers there, including Taraweeh prayers, under the pretext of a declared state of emergency coinciding with the ongoing Israeli-American war on Iran.
