UNRWA Chief Condemns Israel’s Death Penalty Law for Palestinians

(MENAFN) The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees expressed on Tuesday that he is “absolutely appalled” by Israeli legislation imposing the death penalty on Palestinian prisoners.

“I have been absolutely appalled by this abject law, which I really hope will be rejected by the Supreme Court,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini told reporters in Geneva.

Lazzarini cautioned that the law is “extraordinarily discriminatory,” as it targets only one group of the population, and emphasized that the international trend is moving toward abolishing the death penalty rather than reinstating it.

Israel’s Knesset passed the legislation on Monday, making the death penalty the default sentence for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank convicted of lethal attacks against Israelis.

Currently, over 9,300 Palestinians, including 350 children and 66 women, are held in Israeli prisons, according to reports from prisoner rights groups and the Israeli Prison Service. These detainees reportedly face torture, starvation, and inadequate medical care, which has resulted in dozens of deaths.

Since October 2023, Israel has stepped up measures against Palestinian prisoners as part of its military campaign in Gaza, which local authorities report has killed more than 72,000 people and injured 172,000.

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