Palestinian prisoners' families in the Gaza Strip are deeply anxious as Israel moves closer to passing legislation that would allow the execution of Palestinian detainees, a move viewed widely by Palestinians and international human rights groups as the beginning of an unprecedented era in the brutal treatment of prisoners in Israeli jails.
The Israeli Knesset's National Security Committee approved the draft law to execute Palestinian prisoners on Tuesday after introducing several amendments, paving the way for the legislation to move to its second and third readings in the Israeli parliament before a final vote.
Across the devastated coastal enclave, the possibility of the law's approval has revived painful fears among families who already struggle with limited information regarding their relatives, many of whom were abducted by Israeli forces during Israel's genocidal war on Gaza .
For many families, the uncertainty surrounding their loved ones' conditions inside Israeli prisons has long been a source of anguish. Now, the prospect of execution has added a new layer of terror. Mounting fears In a modest home in Gaza City , Um Samir sits surrounded by photographs of her imprisoned son, waiting anxiously for any news about developments in the Israeli parliament.
Samir was arrested during an Israeli military invasion into Gaza's Zeitoun neighbourhood in 2024. For months, his family had no idea where he had been taken.
"We searched everywhere and asked every organisation," his mother said. "We didn't even know if he was alive."
His name finally appeared months later on a list of detainees published by Israeli authorities in late 2025, bringing a moment of relief to the family.
"We were overjoyed just to know that he was alive," she recalled.
But that relief quickly faded after the released prisoners told the family that Samir was being held in Israel's notorious Sde Tieman detention facility, where many Palestinian detainees have reported severe abuse.
"They told us he was being held with prisoners accused of belonging to the elite al-Qassam Brigades and that he was subjected to harsh torture," Um Samir said.
"We rely on scraps of information from released prisoners or human rights groups," she added. "We don't even know what he looks like now. Has he lost weight like the others? Are his bones broken? And now we hear about a law that could sentence him to death. The fear today is unlike anything we experienced before. We used to worry that he might get sick in prison or be tortured. Now we fear they might execute him."
Similar sentiments are shared across Gaza as discussions around the proposed law intensify.
In the al-Tuffah neighbourhood, east of Gaza City, the family of prisoner Zuhair is one family. Zuhair, 39, was arrested on 7 October 2023 after crossing the separation fence between Gaza and Israel.
His brother Mohammed told TNA that the family was stunned when they later learned the charges against him.
"My brother crossed with civilians. He wasn't a fighter, but later we heard that he was being held with members of the Qassam Brigades and accused of participating in the attack," Mohammed said, adding that "for months, the family had no information about him."
Eventually, the International Committee of the Red Cross confirmed that Zuhair was being held in Israeli prisons but provided no details about the charges.
The family only learned more through the testimony of a released prisoner who said he had seen him inside Sde Tieman prison.
"He told us my brother had been subjected to a military trial because of alleged links to Islamic Jihad's elite forces," Mohammed described, stressing that his brother was innocent and a civilian.
Released prisoner Samer al-Kurd, who was freed several months ago, told TNA that the "conditions inside Israeli prisons have deteriorated sharply since the start of the war in October 2023."
"What is happening now inside prisons is completely different from before," the 53-year-old prisoner who was released from the Israeli prisons after spending 15 years inside them said. "Food rations have been drastically reduced, prisoners are denied medical treatment, and assaults have become frequent."
According to al-Kurd, many prisoners have lost large amounts of weight due to malnutrition.
"Some prisoners with chronic illnesses are not receiving their medication regularly. Others are shackled for long periods and prevented from contacting lawyers or their families," he described.
Shaher Abu Assi, whose son Shaher was arrested by Israeli forces from Al-Nasr Children's Hospital in 2024, told TNA that "every story he hears from released prisoners fills him with dread."
"Whenever we hear about torture or hunger in prisons, we immediately think about our sons," he said. "We ask ourselves every day: Are they alive? Are they being fed? Are they receiving medical treatment?" 'White killing' Human rights organisations warned that the danger faced by Palestinian prisoners goes far beyond the possibility of execution.
Mirvat Al-Nahal, a researcher at the Al-Mezan Centre for Human Rights in Gaza , said prisoners are already subjected to what she describes as "white killing".
"Killing is not only carried out through execution," she told TNA . "Prisoners are dying slowly as a result of torture, malnutrition and the denial of medical care."
Al-Nahal said the organisation has documented disturbing testimonies from recently released detainees.
"These testimonies describe prisoners being shackled for weeks, deprived of food, medical treatment and even basic hygiene," she said. "In many cases, prisoners are also denied contact with lawyers."
Al-Nahal warned that the lack of international accountability encourages Israel to continue these practices.
"The continued international silence effectively gives the occupation a green light to carry on with these violations, which breach the most basic principles of international humanitarian law," she said.
The suffering of prisoners is also compounded by enforced disappearance.
According to al-Nahal, Israeli authorities have withheld information about thousands of people it disappeared since the beginning of the war in October 2023.
"This secrecy leaves thousands of Palestinian families trapped in uncertainty," she said. "They do not know whether their sons are alive or have died under torture."
Palestinian prisoners' rights groups estimate that more than 9,000 Palestinians are currently held in Israeli prisons, including hundreds serving life sentences and thousands detained without trial under Israel's administrative detention system.
Human rights organisations also reported that more than 100 Palestinian prisoners have died in Israeli prisons since the start of the war, though the identities of many victims remain undisclosed.
For Ibrahim Abrash, a Palestinian political analyst from Gaza , the proposed death penalty law represents a significant shift in Israel's approach to the Palestinian prisoner issue.
Abrash said the rapid developments in the region should not distract Palestinians from the central reality of the conflict.
"The core of the conflict remains occupation, and at the heart of that reality lies the issue of prisoners and martyrs," he told TNA . "The prisoners' issue is not merely a humanitarian file or a matter of financial allocations. It represents a fundamental part of Palestinian national memory and recognition of the sacrifices made by those who struggled for their people."
According to Abrash, declining international attention to the prisoners' issue has emboldened Israel to push forward with increasingly extreme measures.
"The danger of the death penalty law lies not only in taking the lives of prisoners," he said. "It also lies in the attempt to criminalise Palestinian resistance fighters and redefine the nature of the conflict."
He argued that such legislation is part of a broader effort to strip the Palestinian struggle of its status as a legitimate fight against occupation, a right recognised under international law.