Palestinian prisoners of Israel

Palestinian prisoners of Israel (or as used by Israel Prison Service: Security prisoners) refers in this article to Palestinians imprisoned in Israel in the context of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The future of Palestinian prisoners detained by Israel is considered central to progress in Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.

In December 2011, 4,772 security prisoners were serving terms in Israeli jails. Of these, 552 were sentenced to life terms. As of April 2013, there were approximately 4,700 security prisoners in Israeli jails, 169 of them held under administrative detention without having been charged. Most of the prisoners are Palestinian men from the West Bank and Gaza area, convicted of participating in terror attacks.

Number of prisoners

According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, from the Six Day War (1967) to the First Intifada (1988), over 600,000 Palestinians were held in Israeli jails for a week or more. Rory McCarthy, The Guardian's Jerusalem correspondent, estimated that one-fifth of the population has at one time been imprisoned since 1967. On 11 December 2012, the office of then Prime Minister Salam Fayyad stated that since 1967, 800,000 Palestinians, or roughly 20% of the total population and 40% of the male population, had been imprisoned by Israel at one point in time. About 100,000 had been held in administrative detention.According to Palestinian estimates, 70% of Palestinian families have had one or more family members has been sentenced to do time in Israeli prisoners as a result of activities against the occupation.