On April 17 of each year, the Palestinian prisoner day was commemorated to highlight the fate of detainees in Israeli prisons and their struggle for freedom against the continuous occupation of Israel of their land.
The day marked the release in 1974 of Mahmoud Bakr Hijazi, the first Palestinian released in an exchange of prisoners with Israel. He was then appointed to honor all the Palestinian prisoners and highlight the Palestinian detention by Israel and the violation of their rights.
According to the prisoner rights group. For Palestinians, political prisoners must be released.
Of those in detention:
- 3,498 are held without charges or trials
- 400 are children
- 27 are women
- 299 Purge perpetuity sentences
Administrative detainees, including women and children, can be held by soldiers for renewable periods of six months on the basis of “secret evidence” that neither the prisoner nor their lawyer are authorized to see.
400 children prisoners – Ahmad manasra box
Israel is the only country in the world that tries the children of the military courts, often refusing them their fundamental rights.
According to the defense for children, Palestine, around 500 to 700 Palestinian children are detained and prosecuted in the Israeli military judicial system each year – some as young as 12.
The most common accusation is to launch stones, a crime punishable under military law up to 20 years in prison.
Currently, 400 Palestinian children remain in Israeli prisons, most of them are in prior detention and have not been found guilty of any offense.
One of the most heartbreaking prisoners is that of Ahmad Manasra, who was arrested at the age of 13, questioned brutally and then sentenced.
Ahmad was with his cousin Hassan, who would have stabbed two Israeli settlers near an illegal Israeli colony in Jerusalem occupying in 2015.
Hassan, who was 15 at the time, was shot dead by an Israeli civilian, while Hmad was seriously beaten by an Israeli crowd and overthrown by a car.
He suffered fractures in his skull and internal bleeding.
At the time, Israeli law said that children under the age of 14 could not be carefully responsible.
To get around this, the Israeli authorities waited for Manasra to be 14 to condemn him. The law was modified in August 2016 to allow the pursuit of young children.
Ahmad was accused of attempted murder and sentenced to 12 years in prison. The penalty was then reduced to 9.5 years.
Ahmad has long suffered from mental health problems. At the end of 2021, a doctors’ psychiatrist Without Borders (MSF) was authorized to visit him and diagnose schizophrenia to him. It was the first time that an external doctor was allowed to see it.
On April 10, 2025, after spending more than nine years behind bars, Ahmad was finally released.
Palestinian prisoners have doubled since October 7
From October 2023, when Hamas led an attack against southern Israel and Israel then began its war in Gaza, until April 2025, the number of Palestinian political prisoners doubled, from 5,250 to almost 10,000.
A released Palestinian, fifteen detainees
Since October 7, Israel has held around 30,000 Palestinians. During the exchanges of captive prisoners with Hamas, Israel released more than 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.
This means that for each liberated person, 15 others have been apprehended.
During the last exchange of ceasefies earlier this year, 739 Palestinians from Gaza were released, which was detained on 15,000. While in the occupied West Bank, 652 were released, but almost 14,500 were detained.
Cease-fire cessation scholarship
During the ceasefire almost two months earlier this year, Israel released 1,793 Palestinian political prisoners, while Hamas released 38 Israeli captives, including eight bodies.
The majority of people released came from Gaza, with 739 released – 337 from North Gaza, 227 from Gaza City, and 151 from Khan Younis, some of the hardest areas of war. In the occupied West Bank, at least 652 prisoners were released, most of them coming from Ramallah (118), Hebron (111) and Nablus (79).
A million Palestinians detained since 1967
Israel’s detention policies have deeply affected Palestinian life for decades. According to the Palestinian Commission for detainees and ex-prisoners, since 1967, Israeli forces have owned around one million Palestinians, or about 20% of the Palestinian population. Statistically, this means that one of the Palestinians in five was imprisoned at some point in their lives.
For many families, arrest has become an inevitability. This systemic practice has fragmented communities, perpetuated trauma cycles and generated generalized resentment.
While the Israel’s arrest campaign continues, many Palestinians fear that mass imprisonment is not only a by-product of the occupation but a deliberate control tool. For the thousands of people currently behind bars, freedom remains uncertain, as for generations before them.