ICSPR Approval of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Death Penalty Law Constitutes a New War Crime, Revealing the Fascist Nature of the Occupation and Demanding Urgent National and International Action

Monday, 3 November 2025

Press Release

ICSPR: Approval of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Death Penalty Law Constitutes a New War Crime, Revealing the Fascist Nature of the Occupation and Demanding Urgent National and International Action

The International Commission to Support the Palestinian People’s Rights (ICSPR) strongly condemns the approval today, Monday, 3 November 2025, by the Knesset’s “National Security” Committee of the draft law on the “Execution of Palestinian Prisoners” in its first reading, ahead of the vote in the Knesset in the coming days. ICSPR considers this a fully constituted war crime and a blatant violation of international humanitarian law, the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions, and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

ICSPR views this criminal law as a serious escalation within the framework of the occupation’s policy of genocide and collective punishment against the Palestinian people, particularly the prisoners’ movement. It represents the formal codification of extrajudicial killings and field executions into an official policy, enjoying legislative cover within the fascist occupation system.

According to Palestinian human rights data, approximately 10,800 Palestinian prisoners are held in Israeli jails, including 3,629 under administrative detention without charge or trial, alongside dozens of women and children, in harsh conditions devoid of basic life necessities and human dignity.

Since the beginning of the genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, over 81 prisoners have been martyred in Israeli prisons as a result of torture, systematic killing, or deliberate medical neglect, while the occupation authorities continue to forcibly disappear dozens of detainees from Gaza after arresting them from shelters, hospitals, and disaster-stricken areas. The total number of Palestinian prisoners who have died since 1967 has risen to 313, including 77 martyrs since the current aggression began, according to Palestinian human rights organizations.

ICSPR notes the martyrdom of prisoner Mohammed Hussein Mohammed Ghawadra (63 years old) from the town of Arraba, south of Jenin, inside the occupation prisons, bringing the number of martyrs since the beginning of the genocide to more than 77 known individuals, while the occupation retains the bodies of dozens of martyrs in refrigerators and numbered graves, a double crime violating human dignity and contravening international law, particularly Article 130 of the Third Geneva Convention and Article 34 of the First Additional Protocol.

ICSPR considers this law an extension of the occupation’s system of genocide and ethnic cleansing against Palestinians in all their locations, including prisons that have been turned into torture centers and sites of slow executions and extrajudicial killings—whether during arrest, interrogation, or through lethal medical neglect. ICSPR warns that the approval of this law provides legal cover for field executions carried out by occupation forces for years and entrenches the policy of impunity.

ICSPR emphasizes that Palestinian prisoners are fighters protected under international humanitarian law, and any harm to their lives or rights constitutes a war crime that does not lapse with time. Continued international silence on these crimes constitutes disgraceful complicity, giving the occupation a green light to pursue policies of genocide and execution. The situation in Israeli prisons, particularly at Sde Teyman Prison in southern occupied Palestine, reflects a horrifying level of crimes and violations, with prisoners subjected to systematic torture, slow executions, and treatment degrading human dignity—amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

In light of these serious developments, ICSPR affirms the following:

1. The enactment of the death penalty law for prisoners constitutes a war crime and a crime against humanity, and is a flagrant violation of justice, international law, and the Geneva Conventions.

2. The United Nations, the Human Rights Council, and the International Criminal Court must urgently act to halt the passage of this law and hold occupation leaders accountable for the crimes committed against prisoners.

3. Activate international mechanisms against execution, torture, and enforced disappearance, and urge the International Committee of the Red Cross to take action to protect the lives of prisoners and detainees.

4. Call on the State of Palestine, the Palestinian leadership, national factions, and civil society institutions to unify the national stance behind the prisoners’ cause and launch a comprehensive international campaign against the racist death penalty law.

5. Urge the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions to fulfill their legal obligations and take practical measures to stop violations against Palestinians, particularly prisoners and detainees in occupation prisons, and hold occupation leaders accountable.