Die Rote Fahne Austria: The Unshakable Resistance of the Palestinians Against Zionist Imprisonment.
We hereby share an unofficial translation of an article published by Die Rote Fahne Austria on August 10.
The settler-colonial power Israel since the 7th of October, 2023, has continued the imprisonment and torture of Palestinians in their prisons, that can only be called brutal and inhumane. They do this blatantly in front of the eyes of several international humanitarian organizations, among them the UN, whose reports on Human Rights point out that torture and mistreatment have become commonplace and systematic in Israeli detention facilities.
Arbitrary detention, mistreatment, and torture in the day to day in prison
Since October 2023, at least 91 Palestinians have lost their lives in Israeli detention;
Survivors report of starvation diets, hard beatings, sexual violence and demeaning treatment during detention and arrest. (1) The reports come to the conclusion that torture and mistreatment are no longer isolated incidents: “Dozens of accounts by released Palestinian detainees demonstrate that torture, ill-treatment, and extreme humiliation have become permanent fixtures of life in Israeli custody”. Far from being the exception these forms of imprisonment are the norm and have become a fixture in the Zionist prison system. Even sexual abuse was promoted, groping female inmates and threatened with rape should they resist. A journalist from Gaza also described mistreatment in prison, telling the “New York Times”: “Nobody was exempt from sexual abuse.” A case from 2024 was particularly revealing, in which a Palestinian prisoner from the Gaza Strip was reportedly hospitalized with severe wounds in his rectal area, and internal wounds after being abused by Israeli reservists. Even though multiple soldiers were arrested, charges later were dropped. Charges of this type are almost always dropped, which openly permits rape. (2)
A big part of the torture begins the moment when the Palestinian is arbitrarily detained by the Zionist occupation forces. Former prisoners report of arbitrary detentions during military operations in the occupied West Bank and in the Gaza Strip, often with hard blows, forced undressing, their eyes being tied for long periods, and humiliating treatment. A Palestinian who was detained on his way to receive aid goods from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation reported that Israeli soldiers had forced a group of civilians – among them two women – to get naked and to kneel with their heads on the ground for hours, before they released the women and detained the men. Others have reported being detained while they were in a hospital, on fishing boats or simply walking on the roads in the Gaza Strip.
No medical treatment, systematic deprivation of food and water
In addition conditions in prisons have worsened considerably since the 7th of October. There are for instance reports of scabies. The Zionists put a many Palestinians in very small rooms and guarantee that the illnesses – which are commonplace in the prisons – are used as weapons, while the Palestinians are being denied all forms of medicine or treatment. Many cases of deaths due to medical negligence have come to light, which are worsened by the fact that the prisoners are being put on a starvation diet – that is the only way to describe it. Even water is being limited, as groups of 25 to 30 Palestinians are being asked to share two bottles of water a day between them. (1) According to Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, more than 9,500 Palestinians as well as Lebanese and other Arabs find themselves prisoners in Israeli prisons, where they are exposed to an “institutionalized regime of torture, physical and sexual attacks and abuse, medical negligence and abuse”, that aims to put the lives of the prisoners in danger.
Palestinians resist the Zionist prison system
This descent into an apparently ever more urgent need to murder more Palestinians through incarceration, takes place at a time in which Israel is not able to break the spirit of the Palestinians, in spite of leading a genocidal war and the near complete destruction of the Gaza Strip after the 7th of October. This shows that every Palestinian who resists the occupation is a threat to the Zionist entity. The thing that causes even more rage for Israel is the fact that the Palestinians were able to resist the prolonged and grueling Zionist prison system before the 7th of October, when it still had not descended to brutal inhumanity described by the prominent member of the PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine), Kamil Abu Hanesh. Kamil Abu Hanesh, who was liberated in a prison exchange and since then has lived in exile in Egypt, had spent 22 long years in Zionist detention, as have many cadres and leaders of Palestinian resistance organizations. They have used the prison system to further politicize the Palestinians and to organize them, converting the Zionist prisons to important schools for Palestinian revolutionaries. The time in prison was not a pause in the struggle: They realized hunger strikes to obtain better conditions, like more movement room, visits by families and lawyers, etc. But even then the arbitrariness of the Zionist imprisonment continued, resulting in children of just 12 years of age being imprisoned together with adults following orders from Israeli soldiers. The imprisoned Palestinian resistance used this to their advantage, organizing and politicizing the youth. They also educated the prisoners, so that many (1) completed their bachelor or masters degrees behind bars. Comrade Hanesh adds: “The Palestinian prisoner is at the forefront of the struggles of the people and has always been their model in the resistance against the occupation.”
Political prisoners as a living symbol of the resistance
When a prisoner spends many years behind bars he becomes a symbol, an inspiring model for his people and an inspiration for the oppressed peoples of the world. It is sufficient to mention comrade Ahmed Saadat, Marwan Barghouti, Hassan Salameh and Walid Daqqa who have become international symbols. Hundreds of Palestinians have achieved international recognition, be it for their long imprisonment or their political, national, humanitarian and moral prestige. It is exactly this steadfastness of the Palestinian people that the Zionists were looking to break when they, put into law in June of this year, an act through which Palestinians who support the resistance could be condemned to death. This law makes it possible to put out death sentences without unanimity and to execute them within a short period, within 90 days. The executions should be realized by the prison departments, whose identities are protected legally. (3) The Palestinian resistance organization Hamas had warned of “graves consequences” when an Israeli act was put into law that installed a special military court for members of resistance groups and that gives it permission to put out death sentences. “The Israeli regime tries to legalize killing prisoners with this law and to make courts instruments of vengeance and abuse”. (4) The Zionist entity has no international obligation to prove the involvement of those they imprison or who would be put before a court with these new laws. One of these prisoners is the renowned doctor from the Gaza Strip, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya who was detained by the occupation forces on December 27, 2024, when the Israeli forces stormed and evacuated the Kamal Adwan hospital in the Northern Gaza Strip, director of which was Dr. Safiya. (5) The increasing international pressure by human rights activists and doctors for his liberation led to the liberation of 60 Palestinians who reported on the aforementioned agonizing and inhumane prison conditions in front of innumerable human rights organizations, among them the UN. (6, 1) The democratic response to the settler-colonial prison system of the Zionist occupation forces can only be the demand for the liberation of all Palestinian prisoners!
Sources:
(1) ‘Barely Kept Alive’: UN Reconstructs ‘A Day in the Life’ of Palestinian Detainees https://www.palestinechronicle.com/barely-kept-alive-un-reconstructs-a-day-in-the-life-of-palestinian-detainees/ (2026)
(2) ‘Permission to Rape’ – NYT Details Sexual Violence against Palestinians in Israeli Custody https://www.palestinechronicle.com/permission-to-rape-nyt-details-sexual-violence-against-palestinians-in-israeli-custody/ (2026) .
(3) ‘Racist Death Law’: Fury Erupts Worldwide over Israel’s Execution Bill for Palestinians https://www.palestinechronicle.com/racist-death-law-fury-erupts-worldwide-over-israels-execution-bill-for-palestinians/ (2026).
(4) Hamas warns of ‘grave consequences’ after Israeli law allows execution of Palestinian prisoners https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2026/05/mil-260512-presstv03.htm (2026)
(5) First Image of Detained Gaza Doctor after 17 Months in Israeli Custody https://www.palestinechronicle.com/first-image-of-detained-gaza-doctor-emerges-after-17-months-in-israeli-custody/ (2026)
(6) ‘I’m Crying Because We Suffered So Much’: Gaza Detainees Describe Israeli Prison Torture https://www.palestinechronicle.com/im-crying-because-we-suffered-so-much-gaza-detainees-describe-israeli-prison-torture/ (2026)
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