Israel arrested 120,000 Palestinians after Oslo Accords

The Israeli occupation has arrested 120,000 Palestinians since the announcement of the Oslo Accords between the PLO and Israel in September 1993, Abdel-Nasser Ferwaneh, a specialist in prisoners’ issues, revealed on Friday.

To absorb this large number of Palestinian prisoners, Ferwaneh explained, Israel built and opened several new prisons.

He noted that detention decreased between 1993 and 2000, but has sharply risen since 2000, when the second Intifada or ‘Al-Aqsa Intifada’ commenced.

Farwaneh, who is a former prisoner, stated that the Israeli detention included men, women, elderly and minors, confirming that about 2,000 women and more than 17,500 children have been detained since the Oslo Accords.

Meanwhile, he disclosed that the Israeli occupation has arrested more than half of the Palestinian MPs, a number of ministers, hundreds of academics, NGOs and international organisations’ staff during this period.

ONTHISDAY: Remembering the signing of the Oslo Accords

The specialist announced that every detained Palestinian was subject to at least one form of torture, noting that torture and harsh treatment have recently increased.

Oslo Accords, the 25th Anniversary – Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]

Since the Oslo Accords, he added, 107 Palestinian prisoners have died inside Israeli jails due to torture and intentional medical negligence – the most recent being Bassam Al-Sayeh, who passed away last week.

Further to this, Farwaneh confirmed that tens of Palestinian prisoners die after they are released, due to illnesses relating to their imprisonment.

Currently, there are approximately 5,700 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, including 220 children, 38 females (women and girls), 700 patients and 500 under administrative detention.