The leadership of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement is under attack. Amid the ongoing assault on the Palestinian prisoners as a whole, where denial of medical care, torture, physical and sexual assault, and starvation have become systematic attempts of “slow assassination,” in which at least 66 Palestinian prisoners have been martyred since 7 October 2023, the leaders of the movement are particularly targeted for mistreatment and abuse.
Palestinian prisoner leaders with high sentences who are priorities in a prisoner exchange with the resistance are facing solitary confinement, torture and medical neglect, including Muhannad Shreim, 49, a leader in the prisoners’ movement serving 29 life sentences plus 20 years for his role in the Izz el-Din al-Qassam Brigades’ resistance during the Al-Aqsa Intifada.
For the past seven months, he has been held in solitary confinement, transferred between the isolation section of Gilboa prison to the isolation section of Megiddo prison, facing complete isolation in narrow cells with no light. During this time, he has lost 45 kilograms of weight and now weighs only 60 kg.
He has severe pain throughout his body, continues to be denied food and medical care, and is held in solitary confinement to deny him access to any independent monitoring of his status. This is the policy of “slow assassination” being carried out against the leaders of the prisoners’ movement, being put in practice.
A number of leaders of the prisoners’ movement have been targeted, held in isolation, repeatedly beaten, starved and denied medical care, including Abdullah Barghouti, Hassan Salameh, Ahed Abu Ghoulmeh, Ibrahim Hamed, Muammar Shahrour, Abbas al-Sayyed, Marwan Barghouti, Mohammed al-Natsheh and Ahmad Sa’adat.
This policy of “slow assassination” is part and parcel of the ongoing Zionist-imperialist genocide in Gaza and throughout occupied Palestine, one manifestation of the ongoing assassination policy of the occupation targeting the leadership of the Palestinian resistance. We urge supporters of Palestine around the world to act and organize to demand their liberation and that of all Palestinian prisoners as part and parcel of ending the genocide in Gaza — on the road to the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea.
Muhannad Shreim
Muhannad Talal Mansour Shreim was born on 12 November 1975 in Tulkarem, where he grew up and graduated from high school in 1993. He began his education at An-Najah National University in Nablus in 1994, where he became one of the most prominent and visible leaders of the Islamic Bloc on campus.
He was known for being present, speaking and chanting, at every demonstration, celebration, funeral procession or memorial, speaking about the resistance and the liberation struggle, the defense of Al-Aqsa Mosque and the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea. He was often the leader of the youth in chants, mobilizing the people and urging greater action.
He was repeatedly arrested by the occupation forces for his activity in the student movement, and he soon joined the Hamas movement and became a fighter in the Izz el-Din al-Qassam Brigades. He was unable to continue his studies due to his repeated detention, although he later returned to study Islamic law at Al-Quds Open University (and in 2021, achieved his master’s degree in Israeli studies from inside the Zionist prisons).
He was arrested for the first time in October 1993 and soon released, and arrested again one month later in November 1993, where he was held in administrative detention for nine months until he was released in August 1994. Several months later, in January 1995, where he was imprisoned for over three years until his release in May 1998.
Muhannad Shreim was arrested by the occupation forces on 8 May 2002 after a lengthy pursuit for months as a leader in the Izz el-Din al-Qassam Brigades, particularly for his role alongside Abbas al-Sayyed and Muammar Shahrour in the Park Hotel operation in Netanya. Hundreds of occupation soldiers invaded the city of Tulkarem with dozens of armored vehicles and tanks in order to arrest Muhannad, invading the building where he was staying in hiding. He had earlier escaped the Zionist soldiers despite being detained, after presenting a fake identification card.
He was held under harsh military interrogation and torture for over two months, and three months after his arrest, occupation forces demolished not only his home but the entire building, including the floors owned by his father and his brothers, Mansour and Mohammed. Both Mansour and Mohammed are also former prisoners who were imprisoned by the occupation during the Al-Aqsa Intifada. Muhannad Shreim was sentenced to 29 life sentences plus 20 years inside the Zionist prisons.
Since he was imprisoned, his father passed away in 2005, and Muhannad was denied the ability to bid him farewell. He has been repeatedly transferred from prison to prison, and was held in solitary confinement for several years before being released from isolation along with other imprisoned leaders following the Karameh hunger strike in 2012.
He was publicly listed with several fellow imprisoned leaders prior to the Wafa al-Ahrar exchange as one of the prisoners that the Zionist regime would refuse to release in the exchange. He has written many articles inside the occupation prisons, but none of his words have escaped the prison walls since the beginning of Al-Aqsa Flood and amid the Zionist-imperialist genocide in Gaza. He is currently being isolated and starved in an attempt to prevent his words and his voice from reaching the Palestinian, Arab and international people again — and the challenge is to us to act to defend him and his fellow imprisoned Palestinian resisters, strugglers and leaders.
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We urge all supporters of Palestine and the Palestinian cause to speak out actively and take action through demonstrations, mass actions and direct actions to confront the abuse of Palestinian prisoners. The imperialist powers, like the US, Canada, Britain, Germany, France and the Netherlands, that continue to arm, support and provide cover for the Zionist genocide in Gaza and throughout occupied Palestine, are fully implicated in these inhuman actions.
Our entire movement must respond collectively to such repression by organizing even more loudly, clearly and effectively to shut down the imperialist-Zionist war machine, to support the Palestinian resistance and all forces of resistance in the region, and to ensure that the Palestinian prisoners are not now and will never be isolated from the Palestinian people, the Arab, Islamic and regional liberation causes, and the international movement for justice.
Freedom for all Palestinian prisoners in occupation jails! Victory to the Resistance!
From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!
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