As Palestinian Prisoners’ Day is marked on Friday, the 62-year-old mother finds herself living a different kind of pain this year. It is no longer only the anguish of imprisonment and separation, but a looming fear shaped by new and uncertain scenarios following the approval of an Israeli law allowing the execution of Palestinian prisoners in late March 2026. Palestinians mark Palestinian Prisoners’ Day annually on April 17.
This year, it comes amid an unprecedented surge in the number of detainees and worsening conditions. According to prisoners’ advocacy groups, more than 9,600 Palestinians are currently held in Israeli prisons as of early April 2026, compared with about 5,250 before the war – an increase of nearly 83 percent. They include 350 children, and more than 3,530 administrative detainees held without charge.
More than 100 prisoners have also died in custody since the war began in October 2023, amid reports of a severe deterioration in detention conditions. But now the fear is that Israel will attempt to execute Palestinian prisoners. The Israeli parliament passed a law on March 30 allowing the death penalty to be implemented, but only against those convicted in a military court of killing Israelis.
In practice, that means West Bank Palestinians, as Israelis are tried in civilian courts, but there is also discussion of a separate tribunal for Palestinians from Gaza, for which the Israeli right-wing is likely to push the use of the death penalty. Israeli legislators, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, celebrated the death penalty ruling, while Israel was internationally condemned for what critics perceive to be yet another example of Israeli apartheid against Palestinians. Three of Inaam’s sons, 30-year-old Mahmoud, 27-year-old Alaa, and 24-year-old Diaa, were detained on December 15, 2023, after a days-long Israeli attack on al-Shifa Hospital, which was near the house they had been living in.
The family had endured a five-day-long siege before Israeli forces stormed their house amid heavy gunfire. Inaam fled south with the other women and the children of the family, but her husband, Naeem, who was 65 at the time, refused to run away. Ten days later, his body was found nearby.
Inaam explains that her children are civilians. Mahmoud is a father of six children, his youngest born during the war. Alaa had completed his law degree, while Diaa was preparing to start life after high school.
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