GAZA, (The Palestine Foundation Pakistan)
Palestinian political and rights groups warned on Thursday that Israel’s move to debate a proposed “prisoner execution law” marks a dangerous step toward formalizing systematic killings inside its detention facilities, turning prisons into arenas for liquidation of Palestinians under the cover of legislation.
Mahmoud Mardawi, a senior Hamas official, said the initiative, driven by far-right factions in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition, represents “a new, brutal form of legalized bloodshed” that blatantly violates international humanitarian law. Approving such legislation, he said, would grant legal cover for killing Palestinian detainees through direct executions, after years in which Israel has already employed slow-death tactics including torture, medical neglect, and deliberate deprivation of basic needs.
Mardawi held the international community, the UN, and the International Criminal Court responsible for the consequences of what he described as a catastrophic and unlawful escalation. He argued that persistent global silence on abuses against Palestinian prisoners has emboldened Israel to advance legislation aimed at legitimizing extrajudicial killing.
For its part, the Asra Media Office (AMO) also expressed deep concern, saying that passing the law would transform Israel’s already biased judicial system into “an openly political instrument of revenge,” especially with plans to apply the law in West Bank military courts using simple majority rulings by judges. Such a shift, the AMO warned, would endanger the lives of thousands of Palestinian prisoners and escalate systematic violations inside prisons.
Both Hamas and AMO called for urgent and decisive international action to block the legislation, prevent it from becoming a new tool of state-sponsored killing, and ensure real protection for Palestinian detainees subjected to what they described as organized abuses and repressive policies inside Israeli prisons.
