Prisoner's Club: Occupation Deprives 65 Students in its Prisons of High School Exams

Palestinian human rights sources announced today, Saturday, that the Israeli occupation authorities continue to detain 65 high school students in their prisons, which directly led to their deprivation of taking the final exams for this year. These figures coincide with thousands of students in the West Bank and Gaza Strip heading to examination halls as part of a unified program implemented for the first time since the outbreak of the war of extermination in October 2023.

The Palestinian Prisoner's Club confirmed in an official statement that these numbers are based on data from the Palestinian Ministry of Education, indicating that the absence of these students comes in the context of a systematic targeting of the Palestinian educational process. The statement clarified that the occupation seeks through these arrests to break the will of the young generation and prevent them from completing their academic achievement, which is a fundamental weapon in facing current challenges.

The sources stressed that the occupying state has significantly escalated its arrest campaigns targeting students from various educational stages since the beginning of the comprehensive aggression on the Gaza Strip. These campaigns were not limited to arrest only, but also included repressive practices aimed at obstructing students' access to their schools and universities in various governorates of the homeland, creating a complex and difficult educational reality.

Student prisoners inside prisons face extremely harsh detention conditions, where they are subjected to various types of torture, abuse, and ill-treatment by the prison administration. Human rights reports stated that deprivation of education is accompanied by deprivation of communication with families, which doubles the psychological and physical suffering of detained students in the absence of real international oversight of these violations.

The Prisoner's Club considered this escalation a radical and dangerous shift in the reality of the prisoner movement, as the occupation authorities targeted the historical achievements made by prisoners over decades of struggle. The right to education is at the forefront of these achievements that the occupation is trying to undermine as part of the collective punishment policy imposed on the Palestinian people for many months.

Human rights organizations issued an urgent appeal to international and UN organizations to assume their legal and moral responsibilities towards the escalating crimes against detained students. These bodies demanded real pressure on the occupation government to stop the policy of targeting educational institutions and ensure the right of prisoners to continue their education in accordance with international laws and conventions.

Current statistics indicate that there are about 9,500 Palestinian prisoners in occupation prisons, including women, children, and hundreds of administrative detainees who are held without clear charges. International and local accusations against the occupation are escalating for practicing policies of starvation and deliberate medical neglect, which has led to the deterioration of the health of a large number of prisoners recently.

Amidst the ongoing war, human rights organizations confirm that the Israeli prison service has tightened its repressive measures, including reducing family visits and preventing the entry of books and educational materials. Despite the occupation authorities' denial of these accusations, testimonies of released prisoners and field reports confirm flagrant violations of the rules of international humanitarian law inside detention centers.

The right of prisoners to education has for many years been one of the most prominent rights they have struggled to establish despite repeated attempts by the prison administration to deprive them of it.