RAMALLAH, (Palestine Foundation Information Center), The Palestinian Prisoner Society (PPS) has warned that Israel is moving toward a “highly dangerous phase” of punitive escalation against Palestinian detainees, following revelations by Israeli Channel 13 about preparations inside Israeli prisons to implement a death penalty law against prisoners.
In a statement issued on Monday, the organization said the reported measures amount to the “peak of the ongoing genocide against Palestinian prisoners,” describing them as part of a broader policy aimed at legalizing revenge under the cover of law.
The group said Israel is accelerating efforts to pass the execution law in its final form, amid what it described as “international complicity and a complete failure to protect thousands of prisoners,” as legal and humanitarian safeguards for detainees continue to erode.
According to the statement, these steps are designed to institutionalize retaliation against prisoners and to impose an unprecedented escalation in repression inside Israeli prisons, at a time when Palestinian detainees face shrinking legal protections at both the domestic and international levels.
Channel 13 reported that the Israeli occupation authorities have, in recent days, begun special preparations to enforce the law, which has already passed its first reading in the Knesset.
These preparations reportedly include the construction of a dedicated execution complex within the Israeli prison system, the establishment of detailed procedures, and the training of selected prison staff, alongside consultations on practices used by other countries.
The report said the new execution site will be referred to as the “Israeli Green Corridor” and that executions would be carried out by hanging, with three guards simultaneously pressing an activation button. Under the proposed framework, executions would take place within 90 days of a final judicial ruling.
Israeli sources cited by the channel said the law would initially be applied to prisoners accused of belonging to elite units of the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, whom Israel alleges took part in the 7 October 2023 attack. The scope of the law would later expand to include Palestinian prisoners convicted of carrying out attacks in the occupied West Bank.
Days earlier, 12 United Nations experts urged Israel to withdraw the proposed death penalty legislation, warning that the Israeli military legal system in the occupied Palestinian territories is incompatible with international law and violates fundamental human rights standards.
The PPS said the proposed law cannot be separated from the broader context of genocide against Palestinians, stressing that prisons have become an extension of Israel’s wider system of collective punishment.
