Palestinian center for prisoners: Israeli enemy extrajudicially executed 32 Palestinian prisoners in 2025
The director of the Palestinian Center for Prisoner Studies, researcher Riyad al-Ashqar, stated that the past two years have witnessed the highest rate of executions of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, marking a dangerous escalation in the policy of extrajudicial killings.
In a statement issued Thursday, al-Ashqar explained that Israeli authorities executed approximately 32 identified Palestinian prisoners in 2025, compared to 43 prisoners executed in Israeli prisons in 2024, according to the Sanad News Agency.
He added that the enemy continued to kill defenseless prisoners in its prisons last year, under the watchful eyes of the international community and its human rights and humanitarian organizations, without any deterrent or accountability.
He pointed out that since October 7, 2023, the Israeli enemy has escalated its crimes of killing Palestinian prisoners through various means, most notably torture, deliberate medical neglect, starvation, and severe beatings, in addition to rape and other serious physical abuses.
According to al-Ashqar, the number of martyrs in the prisoner movement has risen to 323 since 1967, including 86 prisoners who died in the last 27 months alone, 32 of whom died in 2025. The Israeli occupation authorities continue to withhold their bodies and refuse to hand them over to their families.
He indicated that among the martyrs of the prisoner movement whose identities are known from last year, 15 were from the Gaza Strip, 7 from Jenin, 4 from Bethlehem, 3 from Hebron, and one each from Tulkarm, Ramallah, and Nablus.
He pointed out that six of the martyrs were elderly, including five prisoners from the Gaza Strip over the age of 60, in addition to an elderly prisoner from Jenin.
Al-Ashqar also addressed the case of the martyrdom of the young prisoner Walid Ahmed (17 years old) from the town of Silwad, east of Ramallah, emphasizing that his death was a result of the systematic policy of starvation, after he was deprived of sufficient quantities of food, which led to a gradual deterioration in his health and his death inside the Zionist prisons.
He noted that Israeli enemy interrogators use deadly methods of torture against prisoners in various interrogation centers, and that these practices are even more dangerous in detention centers directly run by the enemy army, which lack any oversight, most notably the Sde Teiman detention center, and the newly established sections in Ofer and Negev prisons.
He explained that the torture methods included electric shocks, severe beatings, especially on the upper body, forcing prisoners to stand naked in the freezing cold for extended periods, and unleashing police dogs on them. He also mentioned the policy of starvation and medical negligence against sick prisoners, which led to the deaths of several due to the lack of necessary treatment and healthcare.
Al-Ashqar pointed out that last year witnessed the public exposure of rape crimes against prisoners, with soldiers boasting about them through confessions and leaked videos. This resulted in the deaths of several prisoners and caused severe psychological trauma to others.
He warned of the continued killing of prisoners inside prisons, given the Zionist enemy’s insistence on continuing its repressive policies. He considered Israeli prisons a fertile ground for committing murder.
Al-Ashqar called on the international community and human rights organizations to assume their legal and moral responsibilities and to intervene immediately to form international commissions of inquiry to document the crimes of murder and torture against prisoners, considering them fully-fledged war crimes.
He also called on the International Criminal Court to prosecute the leaders of the Israeli enemy and bring them to trial, for bearing direct responsibility for the crimes committed against Palestinian prisoners inside prisons.