25 Palestinians Spent a Quarter-Century in Israeli Prisons
CrossFireArabia- July 7, 2026
Twenty-five Palestinian prisoners continue to be incarcerated in Israeli prisons for more than 25 consecutive years. These include eight prisoners who have been detained before the signing of the Oslo Accords signed in 1994. These prisoners are in deteriorating health and humanitarian conditions.
Theses eight are known within the Palestinian prisoners’ movement as “veteran prisoners,” as the shortest sentence among them stands at about 34 years, while some have been in imprison for over four decades.
The Palestinian Center for Prisoner Studies confirms that the long years of imprisonment have resulted in severe human suffering. Most of these prisoners have over the years lost several family members, including parents, children, and spouses. The Israeli prison authorities have refused to allow them to attend funerals of any of their family members died.
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), a human rights organization specializing in prisoners’ affairs, stated in a press release, Tuesday, that the majority of veteran prisoners suffer from chronic and serious illnesses as a result of decades of incareceration, and to what it described as a systematic policy of medical neglect. The center emphasized that the health conditions of these prisoners have deteriorated significantly since 7 October, 2023, with the escalation of torture and ill-treatment and the tightening of detention conditions.
The PCHR noted that a number of these prisoners are over 70 years old and face extremely dangerous health conditions due to the continued denial of necessary medical treatment and care.
It stressed the effects of imprisonment do not end with their release, pointing to the deaths of several released prisoners shortly after they been freed due to illnesses and health complications resulting with the most recent being Maher Younis, who spent 40 years in Israeli prisons before passing away after his release.
