Date: March 25, 2026
Press Release
Palestinian Prisoners and Detainees Under Threat of Execution
The International Commission to Support Palestinian Rights (ICSPR) strongly condemns the approval by the Israeli Knesset’s National Security Committee, on Tuesday, March 24, 2026, of a bill imposing the death penalty on Palestinian prisoners. The bill is set to be presented for its second and third readings next week, marking a dangerous escalation that threatens the lives of approximately 9,300 Palestinian prisoners as of March 2026, including 56 female prisoners, 350 children, and 3,358 administrative detainees, in addition to 1,249 detainees classified by the occupation as “unlawful combatants,” including detainees from Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria.
ICSPR affirms that this bill constitutes a war crime and a blatant violation of international humanitarian law and fundamental human rights. The danger of the proposed law lies in its provisions, which violate the right to life by making the death penalty mandatory without requiring full judicial consensus, thereby undermining any fair trial guarantees. The bill also stipulates that executions would be carried out by hanging by the prison authorities within a period of up to 90 days—an extremely short timeframe that does not allow for any legal appeal or review—while also eliminating any possibility of pardon or sentence commutation, effectively legalizing the killing of prisoners.
ICSPR considers that passing this law in the Knesset would constitute a war crime under international law and a clear breach of international conventions related to prisoners’ rights and human rights, including the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions, which guarantee protection for prisoners of war and protected civilian detainees.
ICSPR urges the international community, the United Nations, High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and all human rights organizations to take immediate action to prevent the passage or implementation of this law, to protect the lives of Palestinian prisoners from collective punishment or arbitrary execution, and to hold Israeli officials accountable for any violations and crimes committed against prisoners and detainees in Israeli prisons.
