Palestinians in Israeli custody

[10] The measures it applies, combining elements of colonial administration and martial law, cover not only incidents involving recourse to violence but many other activities, non-violent protests, political and cultural statements and the way Palestinians are allowed to move or associate with each other.

[11] Some of the problematic facets of the system Palestinian prisoners are subject to are, according to sociology professor Lisa Hajjar; prolonged detention of suspects incommunicado, impeding a client's access to his lawyer, the routine use of coercion under interrogation to obtain confessions and the introduction of "secret evidence".

According to Red Cross statistics, in the first two decades of the occupation, from 1967 to 1987, one in three Palestinians, about 500,000, were detained by Israeli forces,[15] and on any given day the courts would be crammed with "children in handcuffs, women pleading with soldiers, anxious people thronging lawyers for information.

"[16] After the Oslo Accords, courts in Palestinian towns were withdrawn to Area C, causing greater difficulty for lawyers and family of the defendant to get access to the tribunals because of the permit system.

Dov Yosef likewise argued in 1948 that the practice abolished the writ of habeas corpus and had led to the improper incarceration by the British of numerous Jewish activists.

[19] The Fourth Geneva Convention permits detentions, and on these precedents the IDF promulgated its Article 87 of the Order Concerning Security Instructions, and applied it to cases where the rules of evidence of Israeli courts would not allow the suspect to be convicted.

Taisir al-Arouri, a Bir Zeit University professor of Mathematics, was arrested at night on 21 April 1974 and released on 18 January 1978, after suffering 45 months of imprisonment without trial or charges being laid, only after Amnesty International issued a public protest.

[21] Writing in 1978 Michael Goldstein called the detention system "an aberration of criminal justice", but temporary in nature and dictated by an ongoing war situation.

[34] By March 2008, more than 8,400 Palestinians were held by Israeli civilian and military authorities, of which 5,148 were serving sentences, 2,167 were facing legal proceedings and 790 were under administrative detention, often without charge or knowledge of the suspicions against them.

[39] Released Palestinians have recalled being blindfolded with their hands and feet tied and later being beaten by Israeli forces, who withheld food, water, and medical supplies.

[35] In 2002, he was tried, convicted and imprisoned in Jericho by the Palestinian National Authority, for his role in the assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi on 17 October 2001 by the PFLP.

[48] The 1995 Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip called for the release of Palestinian detainees in stages, as part of a series of "confidence-building measures".

[54] On 25 August 2008, Israel released 198 prisoners in a "goodwill gesture" to encourage diplomatic relations and support Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas.

[57] Hamas leader Ahmed Jabari was quoted in the Saudi Arabian newspaper Al-Hayat as confirming that the prisoners released as part of the deal were collectively responsible for the killing of 569 Israeli civilians.

[62] In October 2012, according to data compiled by the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, dozens of the prisoners released in the Gilad Shalit exchange had resumed terror activity.

Former prisoners in the West Bank have also engaged in violent activity, and Israel arrested 40 of them for rioting, throwing Molotov cocktails, funneling money to terrorism, and other acts.

However, a senior defense official stated that cooperation between Israeli security forces and Palestinian Authority was effective in tracking the individuals and preventing further attacks.

[63] In August 2013, the Israeli Cabinet agreed on a four-stage process by which 104 Palestinian prisoners will be released as part of a "confidence-building" measure aimed at boosting renewed Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.

[64] All of the prisoners slated for release were convicted for terrorism against Israel before the signing of the Oslo Accords in September 1993; most were either directly involved in the murder of Israelis and many were serving life sentences.

[75] The Third Geneva Convention of 1949,[76] which Israel has ratified,[77] provides more limited protection, giving prisoner of war status to fighters in organised resistance movements fulfill conditions laid out in Article 4(2), including "being commanded by a person responsible for his subordinates" and "having a fixed distinctive sign recognizable at a distance", with Article 4(6) protecting inhabitants of non-occupied territory who spontaneously resist the enemy in some circumstances.

[49] In September 1999, Israel's High Court ruled that the Israeli Security Agency (ISA) does not have legal authority to use physical means of interrogation that are not "reasonable and fair" and cause the detainee to suffer.

[115] In February 2017, Mohammed al-Qiq, a Palestinian journalist in an Israeli prison threatened an open hunger strike against administrative detention upon his re-arrest which the Israel Security Agency stated was for "terror activity" for the Islamist group Hamas.

The demands of the hunger strikers included the right to family visits for prisoners from Gaza, the end of the use of extended solitary confinement and the release of those held under the administrative detention laws.

[124][125] A few days later, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the International Committee of the Red Cross both expressed concern about the condition of the hunger strikers.

[126][127] On 14 May, it was announced that the prisoners had agreed to end their hunger strike, having reached a deal with the Israeli authorities, brokered by Egypt and Jordan and following a formal request from Mahmoud Abbas.

Under the deal, Israel agreed to limit administrative detention to six months, except in cases where new evidence against a suspect had emerged, to increase access to family visits and to return prisoners in solitary confinement to normal cells.

[124] Hanan Ashrawi of the Palestinian National Council stated the hunger strikers had "truly demonstrated that non-violent resistance is an essential tool in our struggle for freedom".

[129] In August 2021, Hisham Abu Hawash, a 40-year-old construction worker and father of five from Dura, began a hunger strike in protest of his detention, as he had been held without charges or evidence against him since October 2020.

A medical team from the International Committee of the Red Cross visited the prisoner in early January and warned that he was in critical condition and could face irreversible health consequences or even death.

[142][143] In March 2016, Amnesty International launched[144][145] a campaign to free a Palestinian circus trainer Mohammed Abu Sakha, who was held without a charge or trial since his arrest in December 2015.