The Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs Commission said on Thursday that it had monitored more than 135,000 arrests since the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa Intifada on this day in 2000, and that these arrests affected all groups and segments of Palestinian society, males and females, young and old.

She added in a report she issued on the occasion of the 23rd anniversary of the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa Intifada: Among those cases, nearly (21) thousand arrests of minor children were recorded, and the arrest of half the members of the Legislative Council (the Palestinian Parliament) in its last session, a number of ministers, and hundreds of Academics, journalists, and workers in civil society organizations and international institutions.

The Commission indicated in its report that more than 2,600 Palestinian girls and women were arrested. Among them were (4) women, each of whom gave birth in prison under harsh and difficult conditions. They were: Mervat Taha (21 years old) from Jerusalem, who was arrested in 2002 and gave birth to her firstborn, “Wael,” on 2/8/2003. Manal Ghanem (32 years old) from Tulkarm, who was arrested on April 17, 2003 from her home in Tulkarm. She is a mother of four children and gave birth to her baby, “Nour,” on October 10, 2003. Samar Subeih (22 years old) from Jabalia Camp in the northern Gaza Strip, who was arrested while she was three months pregnant, on 9/29/2005, and gave birth to her firstborn, Baraa, on 4/30/2006. Fatima Al-Zaq (40 years old) from Gaza City. She was arrested while she was in her second month of pregnancy on 5/20/2007 through the Beit Hanoun checkpoint. She is a mother of eight children and gave birth to her child, “Youssef,” on 1/17/2008.

The Commission explained that there is a remarkable increase in the volume of administrative detention decisions, as it monitored the Israeli occupation authorities issuing more than (32) thousand administrative detention decisions, between a new decision and the renewal of administrative detention, since the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa Intifada.

The Commission stated that torture did not stop in Israeli prisons, and that killings and slow executions through so-called medical negligence also did not stop. While the state of oppression, abuse and racist incitement against prisoners has escalated significantly in recent years, and a set of laws were approved to legitimize the crime, and it escalated further after the formation of the extreme right-wing government and Itamar Ben Gvir assuming the Ministry of National Security, which led to many detainees becoming martyrs, as Since the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa Intifada on September 28, 2000, about (114) martyrs have joined the list of martyrs of the Captive National Movement, as a result of torture, premeditated killing, and medical negligence, the last of whom was the prisoner Khader Adnan, which raised the list of martyrs of the Captive National Movement to (237). A martyr. This is in addition to many others who became martyrs after their release from prison, affected by the diseases that befell them during their imprisonment.

The occupation authorities are still detaining about (5,200) Palestinian prisoners in their prisons and detention centers, including (38) female prisoners and about (170) children, and more than (1,250) administrative detainees and (700) prisoners suffering from various diseases, including (24) prisoners suffering from illness. The most dangerous of them is the prisoner, Commander Walid Daqqa.

It is noteworthy that on September 28, 2023, the Al-Aqsa Intifada broke out in response to the provocative visit made by the right-wing Israeli opposition leader at the time, Ariel Sharon, to the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Mosque, with the protection of two thousand Israeli soldiers and border guards. This incident was the spark that ignited the Palestinian territories with a series of confrontations. The bloodshed extended to include Palestinian cities and towns and the Green Line areas.

After two days of confrontations, on the 30th of the same month, the Palestinian child, “Muhammad Al-Durra” (11 years old) from the Gaza Strip, was martyred after being surrounded by Israeli fire while he was in the hands of his father and in front of television cameras. His image shook the world, revealing the ugliness of the occupation, and he became a symbol of the Al-Aqsa Intifada. The image of the martyr, Fares Odeh, who was unarmed and facing the Israeli tank with a stone, became a symbol of the Palestinian challenge and insistence on confronting the occupier in order to defeat the occupation and achieve freedom.