After dozens died in Israeli jails, death penalty law rattles Palestinians

Ramallah, West Bank – Dozens of Palestinian prisoners have died in Israeli prisons over the past two and a half years, some during torture while others as a result of medical neglect by prison authorities, rights groups say.

Now, Israel is making plans for the execution of possibly hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held on charges of fatal attacks against Israelis, according to an Israeli media report, under what legal experts have called racist legislation that has rattled the families of thousands of Palestinians in Israeli jails.

A facial injury is visible on a Palestinian prisoner during the families’ reception of the released detainees from Israeli jails on October 13, 2025, in Ramallah, West Bank [Faiz Abu Rmeleh/Getty]

Israel’s Channel 13 reported last week that the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) has embarked on logistical preparations to implement a draft law, outlining plans for a dedicated facility to carry out any executions and to prepare and train staff to implement the punishment.

The draft law calling for the execution of Palestinian prisoners convicted of killing Israelis passed the first reading in the Israeli parliament in November, amid controversy about what a Palestinian legal expert has described as “apartheid legislation”.

An amended version of the bill is under discussion in a parliamentary committee in advance of two more readings before it is adopted into law, but no date has been set for a new vote.

Israel’s Channel 13 reported that under the plan, executions would be implemented within 90 days of the court ruling and that they would be carried out by hanging.

It quoted sources as saying that death sentences would be carried out against elite members of Hamas, accused of involvement in the October 7, 2023 attack.

Prisoners convicted of lethal attacks against Israelis in the occupied West Bank would later be subject to execution, it said.

Palestinian fears

For the family of Arafat Mahmoud Abu Shaeira, who is serving a 28-year sentence following an armed clash with Israeli soldiers in 2006 in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, the report is most alarming.

“I no longer sleep out of fear for Arafat,” his mother, Rasmiyah, told Al Jazeera at her house in al-Azzeh refugee camp, also known as Beit Jibrin, in Bethlehem, referring to her 44-year-old son.

Looking at a picture of Arafat, who is held at an Israeli prison in the Negev desert, she said that as if “starvation, abuse and killing” in jail were not enough, “we are now hearing news Israel has begun implementing the prisoners’ execution law.”

The Palestinian Information Center has said that Arafat suffers chronic from pain as a result of bullet shrapnel still in his shoulder, back and hand after the clash. Two of his comrades were killed in that incident.

His family, who have not been able to visit him since Israel imposed a ban on family visits more than two years ago, says apart from his injuries, they are worried by information from lawyers and rights activists of severe abuse by prison guards and negligence by prison authorities.

In a report published last November, Physicians for Human Rights in Israel (PHRI) said at least 94 Palestinian deaths in Israeli custody have been documented since October 2023.

Israeli military prisons are responsible for at least 52 of the deaths, it said, while the remaining 42 were documented in facilities run by the IPS.

A freed Palestinian prisoner is welcomed after being released from an Israeli jail as part of a captive-prisoner swap and a “ceasefire” deal in Gaza between Hamas and Israel, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, January 30, 2025 [Ramadan Abed/Reuters]

Israel holds thousands of Palestinians in its prisons for attacks or simply for involvement in resisting the occupation, according to rights activists. Thousands more have been detained since the genocidal war on Gaza began following the October 7, 2023, cross-border raid led by Hamas on Israel that killed some 1,200 people.

Israel has killed more than 70,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including more than 20,000 children.

Hundreds of those prisoners could be subject to the death penalty if the law is implemented. A revised draft legislation is currently being debated in the national security committee in parliament before being sent for a second and a third reading.

A vote has yet to be scheduled.

Palestinian Prisoner’s Society: Prisoners living in ‘hell’

The head of a Palestinian society that campaigns for the prisoners said Palestinian prisoners are already living “in hell”, and the law calling for the execution of prisoners represents a dangerous development.

“Escalation against prisoners has continued without pause over the past two years, culminating in what Israeli media announced regarding the imminent implementation of the execution law,” Abdullah al-Zaghari, head of the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society in the occupied West Bank, told Al Jazeera.

“Talk of additional measures and preparations to hang prisoners from Gaza and the West Bank comes within a broader escalation that coincides with the ongoing war against the Palestinian people, including within prison walls,” al-Zaghari said.

Violations of international law

He said all measures against prisoners introduced by Israel’s far-right government after it took office three years ago were a violation of international law.

Ramzi Odeh, professor of international law and head of the International Academic Campaign Against Occupation and Apartheid, said the proposed law constitutes “apartheid legislation” because it differentiates between Palestinians and non-Palestinians.

“An Israeli settler or soldier who kills a Palestinian is not subject to this law,” he told Al Jazeera. “They are tried under ordinary procedures, and the execution law is not applied to them. This is clear discrimination in punishment against Palestinians.”

Odeh said Israel has classified Palestinian detainees under what it calls the category of “unlawful combatants” – a designation that rights groups consider controversial because it removes them from prisoner-of-war protections under international law while also not treating them as civilian detainees subject to ordinary judicial safeguards.

“As a result, in many cases they are not presented with clear indictments, nor are they tried within defined timeframes, but are kept in detention for long and open-ended periods,” he said.

“The most dangerous aspect of this law is preventing the International Committee of the Red Cross from visiting prisoners, as well as restricting lawyers’ visits until the late stages of proceedings,” Odeh added.

He said the Fourth Geneva Convention clearly guarantees Red Cross visits, access to medical care, adequate food and family visits.

“Israel has exploited the events of 7 October 2023 to disregard these obligations, while the world remains silent,” he added.

Appeals for international support

Al-Zaghari called on Arab and Muslim mediators, including the emir of Qatar, and the Egyptian and Turkish presidents, to intervene and ensure protection for prisoners’ lives and rights.

Al-Zaghari said Palestinian rights organisations were preparing to launch an international campaign to confront what he described as “massacres” inside prisons. He said meetings have been held with foreign consuls and ambassadors, as well as with the International Committee of the Red Cross, but gave no further details.

“If there is no urgent and effective action to stop the prisoners’ execution law and the assaults inside prisons, the situation will deteriorate further and reach dangerous levels,” he warned.