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The Day · Friday 5 December 2025

Filed 16:55 · Palestine time (UTC+2) · Prisoners

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Prisoner Institutions: Transferring MP Muhammad Abu Tir to Underground Prison is a ‘Death Sentence’

Prisoner institutions have described the transfer of MP Muhammad Abu Tir to an underground prison as a ‘decision of execution’. The statement underscores serious concerns about the conditions of his detention, and highlights the broader implications of such moves on imprisoned Palestinian political figures.

Prisoner institutions on Thursday stated that the transfer of Palestinian lawmaker Muhammad Abu Tir to an underground prison constitutes a ‘decision of execution’. This strong characterization reflects growing alarm among rights groups and prisoner organizations regarding the treatment of high-profile detainees in the occupation’s prison system.

According to statements issued by these institutions, the move to relocate MP Abu Tir into underground incarceration facilities signifies a dangerous escalation in punitive measures against Palestinian political detainees. Such underground prisons are widely viewed as sites that exacerbate the precarious health and security conditions for inmates, particularly for individuals with long detention histories or advanced age.

Referring to the decision as tantamount to a ‘death sentence’, the institutions emphasized that relocating Abu Tir into facilities isolated from natural light, proper ventilation, and basic humane conditions could directly threaten his life. They argue that this action reflects an intentional effort by the prison administration to break the resolve of resisting detainees and to impose psychological and physical suffering on Palestinian representatives in captive settings.

Meanwhile, human rights voices within these institutions warned that targeting elected Palestinian figures represents not only a direct strike on individual freedoms but also undermines collective Palestinian representation. They pointed out that MP Muhammad Abu Tir’s continued detention and now his transfer to a subterranean cell are part of a systematic policy aimed at silencing voices of resistance from within the prison walls.

From its side, the institutions affirmed that they are monitoring the situation and continuing to document all relevant developments in Abu Tir’s case. They also called for immediate international attention to what they described as a deliberate form of slow execution, enabled in part by the lack of oversight on conditions within underground detention sites.

In addition, the institutions reiterated that Abu Tir’s case is not an isolated one, but falls within a broader pattern of punitive transfers and degrading treatment intentionally directed at Palestinian prisoners who symbolize resistance. These actions, they noted, are in contravention of fundamental human rights standards and serve as part of a strategy to crush any political expression or mobilization behind prison bars.

The statement closed with a call for urgent mobilization across legal and humanitarian platforms to pressure for Abu Tir’s immediate return to standard detention conditions, as well as to end the policy of using underground cells as tools of systematic punishment. Until such steps are taken, prisoner institutions hold the prison administration fully responsible for any deterioration in Abu Tir’s health or life under his new conditions of imprisonment.

5 Dec, 16:55

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