Number of Palestinian Prisoners Rises By 83% Since Oct 2023

(IMEMC)

Reposted from IMEMC, April 16, 2026

Palestinian prisoner institutions reported that the number of Palestinian detainees held in Israeli prisons has risen by 83 percent since October 2023. According to current data, the total number of detainees reached more than 9,600 by early April 2026, compared with 5,250 before October 2023.

In a statement issued ahead of Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, marked on Friday April 17, the institutions said that the situation of detainees can no longer be viewed as a continuation of “traditional” occupation policies.

Instead, it has become part of a broader system of violence targeting Palestinians in all aspects of their lives. The institutions noted that human rights organizations have compiled extensive documentation and testimonies revealing widespread abuses inside Israeli prisons and military camps, including torture, starvation, denial of medical care, and various forms of physical and sexual assault.

These conditions, they said, indicate that detention facilities have become spaces where systematic violence is carried out, reflecting another dimension of the ongoing mass killing campaign.

The institutions added that Israeli authorities more than one hundred Palestinian detainees have died in Israeli prisons since October 2023, due to various reasons, including torture and medical neglect, with the identities of 89 confirmed so far, while dozens of detainees from Gaza remain forcibly disappeared.

This escalation coincides with efforts to advance legislation known as the “Prisoner Execution Law,” which rights groups describe as discriminatory and targeting Palestinians exclusively.

According to the institutions, the proposal aligns with a long-standing pattern of extrajudicial killings and forms part of the broader structure of violence affecting Palestinians.

The statement—issued by the Palestinian Authority’s Commission for Detainees and Ex‑Detainees Affairs, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society, Ad-Dameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, and partner organizations—called for urgent international action to stop the ongoing mass killing campaign and to oppose the proposed execution law under the slogan “Together Against Genocide and Execution.”

A briefing paper released on the eve of Palestinian Prisoners’ Day outlined key data on the situation of Palestinian and Arab detainees in Israeli prisons and military camps. According to the paper, the number of detainees has increased by 83 percent since October 2023, reaching more than 9,600 by April 2026. Among them are 86 women, including two detained before the escalation, and 25 held under administrative detention.

The institutions reported that approximately 350 children under the age of 18 are held in Ofer and Megiddo prisons, in addition to two girls held in Damon Prison. By the end of 2025, the number of children held under administrative detention, without charges or trial, had reached 180.

Administrative detention has expanded at an unprecedented rate, with more than 3,532 Palestinians held without charge or trial by April 2026, including women and children.

Most administrative detainees are former prisoners, and the category includes students, journalists, lawyers, medical professionals, academics, elected officials, activists, workers, and relatives of slain Palestinians and detainees. Before October 2023, the number of administrative detainees stood at around 1,320.

The number of Palestinians classified by Israeli authorities as “unlawful combatants” reached 1,251 by April 2026, a figure that does not include those held in military camps.

Combined, administrative detainees and those classified as “unlawful combatants” constitute nearly half of all Palestinians currently held, meaning that about 50 percent of detainees are imprisoned without charges or trials.

The institutions also noted a sharp rise in the number of sick detainees, with the majority suffering from illnesses caused or worsened by harsh detention conditions, torture, and denial of medical care. They warned that the number continues to grow due to ongoing medical neglect.

According to the data, 326 Palestinian detainees have died in Israeli custody since 1967, including 89 since October 2023. Dozens of detainees from Gaza remain forcibly disappeared. The number of detainees whose bodies are wheld by Israeli authorities has risen to 97, compared with 11 before October 2023.

Following prisoner exchanges in October 2025 and the release of long‑term detainee Ibrahim Abu Mukh after 40 years in prison, eight Palestinians detained before the signing of the Oslo Accords remain in Israeli prisons.

The longest‑held among them are Ibrahim Bayadsa and Ahmad Abu Jaber, both imprisoned since 1986. In addition, dozens of Palestinians detained during the Second Intifada have now spent more than 21 years in prison, many serving life sentences.

After the 2025 exchange, 118 Palestinians remain serving life sentences. The longest sentence is that of Abdullah Barghouti, serving 67 life terms, followed by Ibrahim Hamed, serving 54.

The institutions documented more than 23,000 arrest cases in the occupied West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem, since October 2023. The figure includes those who remain imprisoned and those later released, as well as individuals detained from their homes, at military roadblocks, or forced to surrender under pressure. It also includes Palestinians held as hostages. The data does not include thousands detained in Gaza, many of whom remain forcibly disappeared.

More than 700 women have been detained since October 2023, including women from the 1948 territories, Gaza, and the West Bank. Arrests among children have reached approximately 1,800 cases.

More than 240 journalists have been detained, with 43 still held, including three women. One journalist, Marwan Harzallah from Nablus, died in Israeli custody.

The institutions said that arrest campaigns are accompanied by severe beatings, threats against detainees and their families, widespread destruction of homes, confiscation of vehicles, money, and gold, and extensive damage to infrastructure, particularly in the Tulkarem and Jenin refugee camps.

Israeli forces have also carried out field executions, including against relatives of detainees, and expanded field interrogations affecting thousands across the West Bank and Gaza.

The statement reiterated calls to activate universal jurisdiction to prosecute those responsible for torture, war crimes, and crimes against humanity; suspend all diplomatic, military, economic, and academic cooperation with Israel until it complies with international law; and end engagement with the Knesset and Israeli courts, described in the statement as discriminatory institutions.

The institutions also called for the immediate and unconditional release of all Palestinian political detainees, an end to administrative detention, and the dismantling of the military court system.

They urged full cooperation with the International Criminal Court, support for its investigations, enforcement of arrest warrants against those responsible for international crimes, and unrestricted access for the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit detainees and monitor conditions inside prisons.

The International Middle East Media Center (IMEMC) is a media center developed in collaboration between Palestinian and International journalists to provide independent media coverage of Israel-Palestine.

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