Israeli authorities sentence 27 Palestinians to prison without charge or trial

Israeli authorities issued administrative detention orders – imprisonment without charge or trial based on undisclosed evidence – for 27 Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons since the start of June, according to a statement released on Thursday by the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS).

Mahmoud al-Halabi, a lawyer from PPS, said that the majority of the orders issued were extensions of detention orders for Palestinians who had already spent months or years in prison under the controversial Israeli policy.

While Israeli authorities claim the withholding of evidence during administrative detention, which allows detention for three- to six-month renewable intervals, is essential for state security concerns, rights groups have instead claimed that the policy allows Israeli authorities to hold Palestinians for an indefinite period of time without showing any evidence that could justify their detentions.

Rights groups say that Israel’s administrative detention policy has also been used as an attempt to disrupt Palestinian political and social processes, notably targeting Palestinian politicians, activists, and journalists.