Ben Gvir caught giving orders for Palestinian political prisoners to be abused

Palestinian political prisoners in Ofer prison, near Ramallah in the West Bank, have been brutally abused by the Israeli occupation’s repression units. This happened under the instruction and in the presence of criminal far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.

Ben Gvir gives orders for Palestinian political prisoners to be abused while wearing a hangman’s noose badge on shirt

The units fired stun grenades and broke into the cells. They violently assaulted the Palestinian hostages, throwing them onto the ground after confiscating their mattresses and bed sheets. Ben Gvir was wearing a hangman’s noose badge on his shirt at the time, aiming to show Palestinians, once again, that the Israeli occupation has control over them.

February 2026 figures from the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS) show the total number of arrests in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, since the start of the genocide in Gaza has risen to approximately 22,000. These arrests are ongoing and escalating.

On 9 February, Israeli occupation forces detained over 20 Palestinians during a large-scale detention campaign across the occupied West Bank. From the night of 11 February 2026 until the morning of 12 February alone, occupation forces arrested at least 40 civilians across the West Bank.

Between 6 and 12 February 10 Palestinian women were arrested, including one minor across the occupied West Bank. This brings the total number of Palestinian female political prisoners in Israeli occupation jails to 66, including three minors. Since  October 2023, more than 680 women have been arrested in the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem.

Most common reason for arbitrarily detaining women is “incitement” via social media

According to the PPS, the most common “charge” against Palestinian women is “incitement”‘ via social media posts. Most female prisoners are held in Damon prison. In addition to the usual abuse suffered by prisoners at the hands of the occupation, they are also denied contact with their children and families, adding to their trauma. Since the start of the genocide in Gaza, female prisoners endure increased humiliation, including forced nostrils searches

The PPS claims these arrests are accompanied by unprecedented crimes and violations. These include “severe beatings, systematic acts of terror against detainees and their families, widespread destruction of homes, confiscating of vehicles, money and gold jewellery, demolition of  prisoner’s family homes, and the taking of family members as hostages.”

44 Palestinian journalists from the West Bank, occupied Jerusalem and Gaza, are currently being detained  by the occupation. Most are being held without charge and trial, under what the occupation calls “administrative detention”. These detention orders are indefinite, and renewed every six months.

Israeli occupation’s policy of daily arrests aimed at undermining any form of resistance

Arrests are exploited as a cover to expand settlement activity in the West Bank and, according to the PPS, the policy of daily arrests is “one of the most prominent colonial tools employed by the ‘Israeli’ system, to target Palestinians and undermine any form of mobilisation or resistance.” This policy has affected all segments of Palestinian society.

Under international law, Palestinians have a legal right to resist their occupier, in any way they wish, including by using armed resistance. These resistance fighters are fighting against Zionist colonisers who are intensifying their campaign of illegally displacement, imprisonment, ethnic cleansing and killing against Palestinians. And their struggle against illegal occupation and repression is more important than ever before.

Prisoner’s,  released prisoners, and their families are also targeted by discriminatory legislation. Netanyahu has recently signed deportation orders against two Jerusalem Palestinians. The first was released from prison in 2024, after serving 23 years in Israeli occupation prisons. The second is still currently in prison, serving an 18 year sentence, and is set to be deported once released.

The decision is based on a racist law, which aims at undermining Palestinian presence in the territories occupied in 1948 and in occupied Jerusalem. This is known as the Citizenship and Residency Revocation Law, approved by the occupation in 2023. The announcement marks the first time that this law is being implemented  to remove citizens from the state of ‘Israel’.

Palestinian detainees are subjected to systematic torture,  medical neglect and deliberate starvation. And the Israeli occupation is now preparing to implement the so called “prisoners execution law“. The Palestinian Centre for  Prisoner’s Advocacy says that proposing the death penalty under occupation lacks fair trial guarantees, and contravenes international restrictions governing the use of capital punishment.

Thousands of Palestinian prisoners’ lives threatened by “prisoner execution law”, thanks to Ben Gvir

According to the Hebrew News Channel 13 “Implementation of the law will initially apply to Nukhba [Palestinian resistance fighters and Palestinian hostages] who were involved in the 7 October “attack”, and will later apply to those [Palestinian resistance fighters and Palestinian hostages] “convicted of serious attacks” [against colonial Zionist settlers and the Israeli occupation army] in “Judea and Samaria” [the West Bank].”

Channel 13 also said the Israeli Prisoner’s Service is expected to travel soon to a country in East Asia to “study the legal and organisational aspects of implementing the [death] penalty.” Thousands of Palestinian detainees lives will be threatened by this dangerous escalation.

The systematic torture of these prisoners is an extension of the genocide and ethnic cleansing that occurs openly, on a daily basis against Palestinians. And it is the silence of the international community which empowers the Zionist regime to continue committing these crimes. Urgent action is needed to ensure the Israeli occupation is held to account. International silence only ensures the continuation of this never ending cycle of violence.

Featured image via the Canary