OIC Affirms Support and Solidarity with Palestinian Prisoners in Israeli Occupation Prisons

​On the occasion of Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, which falls on 17 April every year, the General Secretariat of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) expressed deep concern over the deteriorating conditions of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons, numbering more than 9500 prisoners, including 73 female prisoners and 350 children, in addition to detainees from the Gaza Strip, whose number is unknown.

​The General Secretariat warned of the gravity of the systematic and inhumane crimes against Palestinian prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons, the latest of which is the ratification of the death penalty against them, depriving them of the most basic human rights guaranteed to them by international humanitarian law, including education, treatment, and contact with the outside world, in addition to subjecting them to deliberate and systematic torture and abuse, dehumanisation, psychological terrorism, sexual violence, rape, starvation, solitary confinement, and other measures that amount to war crimes and genocide under international criminal law.

​The General Secretariat also emphasised that these measures, committed by the Israeli occupation, constitute a violation of all standards and rules stipulated by international humanitarian law, the Charter of Human Rights, the Geneva Conventions, and other relevant international conventions, which require redoubling efforts to prosecute and hold the occupation accountable in accordance with international criminal law.