Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office: Gaza’s longest-serving detainee al-Balbisi marks three decades away from home & family

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office said on Sunday that Abdul-Halim Sakheb al-Balbisi, 56, from Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza—considered Gaza’s longest-serving detainee—has now completed 30 consecutive years in Israeli prisons since his arrest on December 6, 1995.

In a statement obtained by the Yemeni News Agency (Saba), the office explained that al-Balbisi is serving 23 life sentences, and is one of only two prisoners from the Gaza Strip who remain imprisoned under life terms to this day.

The office added that communication from inside the prisons has been almost entirely cut off since the declaration of a state of emergency following the genocide, with his family barred from visiting him—deepening their suffering and fears over his health and living conditions.

It noted that the prisoner Hassan Abdulrahman Salama from Khan Younis is next on the list of Gaza’s longest-serving detainees. He has been imprisoned since 1996 and is serving 48 life sentences in addition to 30 years.

According to the statement, al-Balbisi began his activities during the First Intifada within the Islamic Jihad movement. He was arrested and interrogated at that time before being rearrested later at the Beit Hanoun checkpoint while attempting to obtain a work permit, where he was charged with involvement in the 1995 Beit Lid operation.

The office added that al-Balbisi has suffered over the years from repeated transfers between prisons and periods of solitary confinement, along with continuous pressure on his family. His mother passed away in 2007 without ever being able to see or visit him.

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office affirmed that, after most of his comrades were released in prisoner-exchange deals, al-Balbisi remains the last of Gaza’s veteran detainees still awaiting freedom and return to his family and homeland.