The Palestinian Authority for Prisoner Affairs has raised alarm over a “dangerous increase” in the number of Palestinians held under administrative detention by Israeli authorities, a practice widely condemned as a tool of systematic repression against the occupied population.

As of early July, 3,629 Palestinians are imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention orders—the highest figure ever recorded since the policy began to be used en masse.

Administrative detention allows Israel to detain individuals indefinitely based on undisclosed evidence, without informing the detainee or their legal counsel of the charges.

According to Haaretz, the practice is virtually nonexistent in most Western countries and is rarely applied to Israeli citizens, particularly Jewish settlers, but is routinely used in the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club reports that over 17,000 Palestinians have been detained since the start of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza in October 2023, including 1,360 minors and 537 women from the West Bank, Gaza, and the 1948 territories.

Conditions inside Israeli prisons have sharply deteriorated. In Gilboa Prison, detainees report violent raids, electric shocks, and dog attacks, with many suffering from broken ribs, hearing loss, and untreated infections. The prison, known for its high-security measures, has been dubbed the “Israeli Guantánamo” by Palestinian inmates.

In Megiddo Prison, detainees face deliberate starvation, beatings, and medical neglect, with reports of scabies outbreaks, minimal food portions, and restricted access to hygiene products.

Human rights organizations, including Addameer and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society, have called for urgent international intervention, citing the use of torture, enforced disappearance, and denial of medical care as part of a broader system of institutionalized abuse.

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