Campaigners around the world marked the annual Palestinian Prisoners’ Day on Friday, calling for the release of more than 9,000 detainees and the repeal of a new Israeli law permitting executions of Palestinian prisoners.
The annual day was first held by the Palestinian National Council on 17 April 1974, exactly three years after Mahmoud Bakr Hejazi was the first to be released in a prisoner exchange between Israel and Palestine.
Since then it has been marked each year to highlight the plight of incarcerated Palestinians.
As of this month, more than 9,600 Palestinians are held in Israeli jails, the Red Ribbons Campaign, which advocates for the release of Palestinian detainees, told Middle East Eye in a statement.