In a paper it issued, Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association monitored the legal amendments that the Israeli occupation has continued to impose on Palestinian prisoners since October 7, 2023, stressing that the amendments passed in 2024 are merely a tool for oppressing and persecuting prisoners.

Addameer explained that since the events of October 7 and the subsequent genocide against the Gaza Strip, the Israeli occupation forces have arrested thousands of Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and detained them in facilities run either by the Israeli military or the Israeli Prison Service, under various legal systems.

Despite the diversity of detention facilities, testimonies collected by lawyers and human rights organizations from former and current detainees reveal that they are systematically subjected to inhumane detention conditions characterized by ill-treatment, including torture, sexual violence, and other crimes.

The foundation added that prisoners and their families have been subjected to systematic targeting through laws and bills that the Israeli Knesset has been passing or discussing since October 7, 2023.

A set of racist laws targeting prisoners

The paper noted that the Israeli Knesset continued in 2024 to pass racist laws targeting Palestinian prisoners, their basic rights, and the rights of their families, leading to the displacement of prisoners' families in occupied Jerusalem. The occupation authorities also continued to extend the state of emergency in prisons, including holding court hearings via videoconference, denying prisoners access to court, and detaining them without beds amid severe overcrowding.

She explained that the Knesset has focused this year on enacting or proposing a series of laws that impact the economic lives of Palestinians in general, and prisoners and their families in particular. The most prominent of these laws is a bill that allows those harmed by "resistance" operations—according to the Israeli definition of "terrorism"—to file compensation claims against those who support these operations, including the Palestinian Authority.

The Knesset also discussed a bill imposing sanctions on financial institutions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip if they are proven to transfer funds to released prisoners and families of martyrs, according to Israeli classifications.

The law imposes restrictions on financial institutions within the occupying state if they deal with these foreign institutions without reporting them.

Two draft laws were also proposed to deduct funds from withheld Palestinian taxes to fund the treatment of prisoners in Israeli jails, a clear evasion of the occupation's legal responsibility.

On October 11, 2024, a law was passed to deduct a portion of tax revenues to fund Israeli defense lawyers appointed to defend prisoners who participated in the events of October 7, 2023.

However, the Israeli Public Defender's Office refused to represent any Palestinian prisoner from Gaza arrested after October 7.

The paper indicated that these laws are merely part of a series of measures through which the occupying state seeks to strangle prisoners and their families by various means.

Unlawful Combatants Arrest Law

Regarding detainees from the Gaza Strip, Addameer explained that some of them were detained under the 2002 “Internment of Unlawful Combatants” Law, which fundamentally violates the guarantees established by international humanitarian law and human rights law.

She pointed out that this law, in 2024, did not distinguish between adult and child detainees, nor did it provide children with any special protection guarantees.

She pointed out that persons deprived of their liberty during armed conflicts are extremely vulnerable and at risk of ill-treatment, particularly when they are unlawfully detained, as practiced by occupying authorities.

She added that international humanitarian law sets minimum standards for detention, requiring legal safeguards from the outset of detention and throughout its duration, while ensuring detainees' access to the outside world to monitor their conditions.

Violation of international laws

Addameer emphasized that the Israeli occupation's violations of international humanitarian law are evident in its treatment of the Gaza Strip as a non-occupied territory, despite its effective control over it. This constitutes a violation of international laws prohibiting demographic and political changes in occupied territories.

In this context, the International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion in 2024 affirming the illegitimacy of Israeli sovereignty over any part of the Palestinian territories and calling on the United Nations and member states to take practical steps to end the occupation.

In the West Bank, despite the occupation's claims to be implementing the Geneva Convention, the reality reveals widespread violations, most notably the imposition of exceptional laws and the trial of Palestinians in military courts, in contravention of the provisions of the convention, which mandate the protection of basic rights for civilians.

Addameer concluded by stressing that all legal measures taken by the occupying state against Palestinians, including arrest and trial, constitute unlawful arrests and violate international laws.