In 2020, Israel detained 4636 Palestinians, including 543 minors under the age of 18, and 128 women, while it issued 1114 administrative detention orders, according to four Palestinian prisoners’ advocacy groups.
The Detainees and Ex-Detainees Commission, the Palestinian Prisoner Society, Addameer for Prisoners’ Support and Human Rights, and Wadi Hilweh Information Center, said in their joint report on the situation of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails by the end of 2020 that the number of Palestinian prisoners in Israel is about 4400, including 40 women, 170 minors, and 26 held since before the signing of the Oslo accords in 1993.
They said 380 Palestinians are still held in administrative detention, while four prisoners have died of illness this year while incarcerated.
A total of 543 prisoners are serving various life terms, including five who were sentenced to life in prison in 2020, and one prisoner, Abdullah Barghouti, serving 67 life terms.
The report said some 700 prisoners are considered ill, among them 300 who are chronically ill and 10 of them, including 81-year-old Fouad Shoubaki, the oldest prisoner, have cancer and are in need of special medical treatment.
Israel is also keeping the bodies of eight prisoners who died while in prison and refuses to release them to their families for burial, but instead keeps them to use them as a bargaining chip in future deals with the Palestinians.