The suffering of Palestinians is not confined to the field; it extends into Israeli prisons. Data from Palestinian human rights organizations reveals a system of arrest and repression affecting thousands of prisoners, including administrative detainees held without clear charges, pregnant women and minors, and prisoners suffering from chronic illnesses. These prisoners endure harsh detention conditions and face constant complaints of medical neglect, solitary confinement, and ill-treatment.
The ongoing human rights data reveals that administrative detention has become one of the occupation’s most prominent tools for keeping Palestinians behind bars without trial. Meanwhile, female prisoners in Damon Prison face dire humanitarian and health conditions, coinciding with the continued issuance of new administrative detention orders and the renewal of others against Palestinians from various West Bank governorates.
The Palestinian Center for Prisoner Studies confirmed the integrated roles of the occupation’s security and judicial institutions in the continued detention of thousands of administrative prisoners, noting that the majority of appeals against the extension of their detention are rejected. The center’s director, Riyad al-Ashqar, explained that 99% of appeals by administrative detainees against decisions to extend their detention are rejected before the occupation courts, including the Supreme Court, often without giving reasons, noting thatثم the Shin Bet security service reviews the appeal files and intervenes in determining the fate of the detainees.
Data from the Palestinian Center for Prisoner Studies shows that Israeli occupation authorities have escalated their use of administrative detention to an unprecedented level since October 7, 2023. More than 22,000 administrative detention orders have been issued since the start of the war on the Gaza Strip, without charges or evidence justifying continued detention.
The number of administrative detainees has risen from approximately 1,300 before the war to more than 3,300 by August 2026, the highest level in decades, according to the report.
The Center considers administrative detention to have become a tool of collective punishment, used to silence influential Palestinians, leaders, and members of civil society.
Ashqar warned against the continuation of this policy under harsh detention conditions and with repeatedly renewable detention periods, which violate the restrictions imposed by international law on the use of administrative detention, which is supposed to remain an exceptional measure and be applied only in the narrowest possible scope.
The Palestinian Center called on international institutions to assume their responsibilities and pressure the occupation authorities to stop the expansion of administrative detention and release the prisoners held under it, considering them to be detainees without clear charges or trials that meet the conditions of justice.
