PROFILE – Who is Hassan Salameh, Palestinian prisoner threatened with execution by Israeli minister?
PROFILE – Who is Hassan Salameh, Palestinian prisoner threatened with execution by Israeli minister?
‘I want to kill you. I want to execute you,’ Ben-Gvir tells Salameh inside his prison cell
Ramzi Mahmud and Lina Altawell
28 September 2026•Update: 28 September 2026
GAZA CITY, Palestine / ISTANBUL
Salameh was arrested in 1996 and Israel refused to include him in any prisoner release deals
After nearly three decades behind bars, Palestinian prisoner Hassan Salameh has returned to the spotlight after Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir published a video showing himself inside Salameh’s cell and directly threatening to kill and execute him.
Salameh appeared in the video handcuffed as Ben-Gvir told him: “I want to kill you. I want to execute you.”
The extremist Israeli minister later said that if he becomes defense minister, he would work to implement death sentences against Palestinian prisoners.
Ben-Gvir said the encounter took place around two weeks ago, while he published the video on Sunday.
The footage of Ben-Gvir inside Salameh’s cell and his death threat drew widespread Palestinian condemnation. Hamas said the Israeli minister’s death threat signaled “new killings” against prisoners.
Hamas affiliation
Salameh was born on Aug. 9, 1971, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip and became involved with Hamas during the First Palestinian Intifada, which began in 1987.
He was placed in Israeli administrative detention five times during those years, according to the Palestinian Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner Society.
As the Palestinian-Israeli confrontation intensified during the intifada, Salameh became involved in Hamas’ military activities and later became one of the commanders of the Qassam Brigades, the group’s armed wing.
Palestinian sources say Salameh was close to former Qassam Brigades commander Mohammed Deif, who was killed by Israel in 2024.
His activities later extended beyond the Gaza Strip to the West Bank before Israel arrested him in Hebron in 1996 following an armed clash in which he was shot and wounded.
According to the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner Society, Salameh underwent around four months of interrogation, during which the two organizations said he was subjected to torture.
He was sentenced in 1997 to 48 life terms, the third-highest number of life sentences imposed on a Palestinian prisoner after Abdullah Barghouti and Ibrahim Hamed.
Israel blamed Salameh for a series of attacks in 1996 following the assassination of senior Hamas commander Yahya Ayyash.
30 years behind bars
Salameh has spent nearly 30 years in Israeli prisons, including around 14 years in solitary confinement over two separate periods, according to the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner Society.
His isolation ended following a hunger strike by Palestinian prisoners in 2012.
During his years in prison, Salameh’s family was able to visit him only twice, according to the same sources.
His mother, Khadija, died in March 2024 after years in which she had been denied visits with him.
In 2010, Salameh married released Palestinian prisoner Ghufran Zamel, but his family and Palestinian prisoner organizations say Israeli authorities have not allowed her to visit him since then.
Salameh’s activity in prison was not limited to organizational work, as he also turned to writing and documenting his experience in detention and solitary confinement.
Among his best-known works is “Five Thousand Days in the World of Barzakh,” which recounts his prolonged experience in isolation and has been documented by Palestinian prisoner organizations as part of Palestinian prison literature.
He also memorized the Muslim holy book, the Quran, during his imprisonment, according to Palestinian sources.
Salameh was elected several times to Hamas prisoners’ senior leadership body, which manages the movement’s organizational affairs inside Israeli prisons, according to the Prisoners’ Media Office.
Harsh detention conditions
In May 2025, the Prisoners’ Media Office said Salameh had been physically assaulted six times within two months and that his weight had fallen to 62 kilograms (137 pounds) because of “deliberate starvation” imposed by the prison administration under Ben-Gvir’s directives.
The Palestinian Prisoner Society documented another assault in August 2025 while Salameh was being transferred from Megiddo Prison in northern Israel to Ganot Prison in central Israel.
It said he was beaten while his hands and feet were shackled, with blows concentrated on his head.
Reports in July 2026 cited a leaked letter from Salameh from Ganot Prison in which he described food shortages, limited outdoor exercise space and deteriorating health.
He said he had been suffering from persistent diarrhea for a year and was awaiting medical examinations.
Salameh’s name has repeatedly surfaced in prisoner exchange negotiations between Hamas and Israel over the years.
During the 2011 prisoner exchange that resulted in the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in return for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners, Hamas sought to include Salameh among those released. Israel refused, and he remained among the prisoners it has consistently declined to free.
His name continued to feature in later negotiations as one of the prisoners serving lengthy sentences whose release became a sensitive issue in prisoner exchange talks.
Ben-Gvir’s threat against Salameh comes amid an escalation in Israeli measures against Palestinian prisoners and years of his advocacy for applying the death penalty against them.
Last March, the Israeli Knesset passed a law allowing the death penalty to be imposed on Palestinian prisoners by a vote of 62-48, amid support from Israeli right-wing parties.
Under the law, executions are carried out by hanging by guards appointed by the Israeli Prison Service, with their identities kept confidential and legal immunity granted to those carrying out the sentence.
The law also allows a death sentence to be issued without a request from the prosecution and does not require a unanimous decision.
The legislation drew widespread criticism and protests in several Arab and regional countries, amid calls for its repeal and for Israel to be held accountable over violations against Palestinian prisoners.