The future of Palestinians detained by Israel in the context of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict is considered central to progress in the Israeli–Palestinian peace process. Cases of prison sentences include the charges of "terrorism" or being a member of an "illegal terrorist organization", such as Hamas or, prior to the Oslo Accords, the Palestine Liberation Organization; but, according to some accounts, also the charge of political activism, such as raising a Palestinian flag.
In April 2022, there were 4,450 Palestinian security prisoners in Israeli prisons – including 160 children, 32 women, and over 1,000 "administrative detainees" (indefinitely incarcerated without charge). According to B'tselem, since the outbreak of the Gaza war on 7 October 2023, Palestinian prisoners with Israeli citizenship have been stripped of many of their rights.Welcome to Hell :The Israeli Prison System as a Network of Torture Camps, B'tselem August 2024 pp.100–112,108. The organization reported institutionalized abuse of detainees, characterizing the prisons as "torture camps".
In December 2011, 4,772 Palestinian security prisoners were serving terms in Israeli prisons. Out of those, 552 were sentenced to life terms. By July 2024, there were 9,623 Palestinians incarcerated by Israel, 4,781 in administrative detention, for alleged security reasons.:'Just before the war started, the overall number of Palestinians incarcerated by Israel and classified as "security prisoners" was 5,192, with about 1,319 held without trial as "administrative detainees." In early July 2024, there were 9,623 Palestinians incarcerated in Israeli prisons and detention facilities, 4,781 of whom were detained without trial, without being presented with the allegations against them, and without access to the right to defend themselves.' "Welcome to Hell" B'tselem, August 2024 p.6
Overview
The Israeli military court system for the occupied territories, modeled partially on the British military court system set up in 1937, was established in 1967, and had been called the institutional centerpiece of the occupation, and within it West Bank Palestinians are treated as "foreign civilians".
The measures it applies, combining elements of colonial administration and martial law, cover not only incidents involving recourse to violence but many other activities, non-violent protests, political and cultural statements and the way Palestinians are allowed to move or associate with each other.
Some of the problematic facets of the system Palestinian prisoners are subject to are, according to sociology professor Lisa Hajjar, prolonged detention of suspects incommunicado, impeding a client's access to his lawyer, the routine use of coercion under interrogation to obtain confessions and the introduction of "secret evidence".
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been put on trial since 1967. According to Saree Makdisi, the cumulative total of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel reached 650,000 in 2005. Of these, according to Tamar Pelleg-Sryck (2011), tens of thousands have been subjected to administrative detention. The incarceration rate was the highest in the world during the First Intifada (1987–1992) – and their conviction rates varied from 90 to 95%, being for the most part secured by plea bargains in 97% of cases. According to Red Cross statistics, in the first two decades of the occupation, from 1967 to 1987, one in three Palestinians, about 500,000, were detained by Israeli forces, and on any given day the courts would be crammed with "children in handcuffs, women pleading with soldiers, anxious people thronging lawyers for information." After the Oslo Accords, courts in Palestinian towns were withdrawn to Area C, causing greater difficulty for lawyers and family of the defendant to get access to the tribunals because of the permit system.
The specific practice of administrative detention was initially introduced by the British to subdue Palestinians, but was then increasingly applied to cope with behavior by Jewish political activists and suspected members of Jewish paramilitary organizations, an extension vigorously opposed by Jewish settlers at the time and one which Jewish lawyers in July 1936 argued should be repealed. Dov Yosef likewise argued in 1948 that the practice abolished the writ of habeas corpus and had led to the improper incarceration by the British of numerous Jewish activists. The state of Israel, on securing independence however, retained this body of regulations on the new state's statute book. Article 111 of the Defence (Emergency) Regulations allowed for military commanders to arrest and detain anyone, without public reasons given or the laying of formal charges or trial, for periods of up to one year, though a provision exists for indefinitely extending any person detained under the order. The Fourth Geneva Convention permits detentions, and on these precedents the IDF promulgated its Article 87 of the Order Concerning Security Instructions, and applied it to cases where the rules of evidence of Israeli courts would not allow the suspect to be convicted. Examples of the practice took place early in the occupation. Taisir al-Arouri, a Bir Zeit University professor of Mathematics, was arrested on the night of 21 April 1974 and released on 18 January 1978, after being imprisoned for 45 months without trial or the filing of charges, only after Amnesty International issued a public protest.
In 1978, Michael Goldstein called the detention system "an aberration of criminal justice", but temporary in nature and dictated by an ongoing war situation. He credited Israel with refraining from making it part of their judicial, as opposed to military, system. In a five-month period of the First Intifada alone, Israel put 1,900 Palestinians under an administrative detention order. For the decade from 2000 to 2009 it was estimated that at any one time anywhere between 600 and 1,000 Palestinians were subjected annually to administrative detention. Amnesty International stated that in 2017 Israeli authorities continue to adopt administrative detention rather than criminal prosecution to detain "hundreds of Palestinians, including children, civil society leaders and NGO workers, without charge or trial under renewable orders, based on information withheld from detainees and their lawyers", and that administrative detainees numbered 441.
Notable Palestinians who have been recently subjected to the process include Khalida Jarrar and Ahmad Qatamesh, both of whom are regarded by Amnesty International as prisoners of conscience.
Number of prisoners According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, from the Six-Day War (1967) to the First Intifada (1988), over 600,000 Palestinians were held in Israeli jails for a week or more.Arrests, imprisonment and torture , Palestinian Centre for Human Rights. Retrieved 27 June 2008. Rory McCarthy, The Guardian's Jerusalem correspondent, estimated that one-fifth of the population has at one time been imprisoned since 1967. On 11 December 2012, the office of then-Prime Minister Salam Fayyad stated that since 1967, 800,000 Palestinians, or roughly 20% of the total population and 40% of the male population, had been imprisoned by Israel at one point in time. About 100,000 had been held in administrative detention. According to Palestinian estimates, 70% of Palestinian families have had one or more family members sentenced to jail terms in Israeli prisons as a result of activities against the occupation.
According to B'Tselem, there was a decline, starting in 1998, in the number of Palestinians held in administrative detention. Less than 20 were held from 1999 to October 2001. However, with the start of the Second Intifada (2000), and particularly after Operation Defensive Shield (2002), the numbers steadily rose.Administrative Detention , B'Tselem. Retrieved 27 June 2008. According to the Fédération Internationale des ligues des Droits de l'Homme (FIDH), from the beginning of the Second Intifada to April 2003, more than 28,000 Palestinians were incarcerated. In April 2003 alone there were more than 5,500 arrests.
In 2007, the number of Palestinians under administrative detention averaged about 830 per month, including women and minors under the age of 18.2007 Annual Report: Human Rights in the Occupied Territories , B'Tselem, Special Report, December 2007. By March 2008, more than 8,400 Palestinians were held by Israeli civilian and military authorities, of which 5,148 were serving sentences, 2,167 were facing legal proceedings and 790 under administrative detention, often without charge or knowledge of the suspicions against them. In 2010, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics reported that there were over 7,000 Palestinians in Israeli jails, of them 264 under administrative detention. Most of the prisoners are held at Ofer Prison in the West Bank and Megiddo and Ketziot prisons in Israel.Who are the Mid-East prisoners: Palestinian prisoners BBC News. 31 March 2008.
In April 2008, Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, stated that 11,000 Palestinians were in prison and detention in Israel, including 98 women, 345 minors, 50 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council, and 3 ministers of the Palestinian National Authority. Of these 11,000 Palestinian prisoners, 8,456 were from the West Bank, 762 from the Gaza Strip, and 694 from within Israel itself (including 552 from Jerusalem). In October 2008, Haaretz reported that 600 Palestinians were being held in administrative detention in Israel, including "about 15 minors who do not know even know why they are being detained."
In May 2020, there were 4,236 Palestinian security prisoners in Israeli prisons, including 352 held in administrative detention, meaning incarceration without charge.
In April 2022, there were 4,450 Palestinian security prisoners in Israeli prisons – including 160 children, 32 women, and 530 "administrative detainees" (incarcerated without charge).
Since the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, Israel has revoked work permits for residents of Gaza. Since then, between 4,000 and 5,000 Palestinians working in Israel who were attempting to flee have gone missing, having been detained by the Israeli government. Released Palestinians have recalled being blindfolded with their hands and feet tied and later being beaten by Israeli forces, who withheld food, water, and medical supplies.
In November 2025, the Physicians for Human Rights–Israel, an Israeli human rights organization, reported that at least 98 Palestinians died in custody since October 2023, with 52 dying under military custody and 46 dying in the Israel Prison Service custody.
Minors In 2000–2009, 6,700 Palestinians between the ages of 12 and 18 were arrested by the Israeli authorities, according to Defence for Children International's Palestine Section (DCI/PS). In 2009, a total of 423 were being held in Israeli detention and interrogation centers and prisons. In April 2010 the number dropped to 280. DCI/PS states that these detentions stand in contravention of international law. Up to August 2013, 193 minors were imprisoned, and according to The Economist, "nearly all" were "brought to court in leg shackles and handcuffs."
According to data from the Israel Prison Service, as cited in United Nations reports for the years 2011, 2012, and 2013, Israeli authorities have transferred Palestinian children from the occupied West Bank to detention facilities located within Israel proper. Such transfers have been cited as inconsistent with article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. Available information indicates that this practice has continued through to 2023, with an estimated annual number of affected children ranging between approximately four hundred and six hundred.