Issue 04
In the Dark
of a Cell
Three years in Israeli custody:
October 2023 – October 2026
Since October 2023, there have been about 26,000 arrests in the occupied West Bank. More than 3,000 administrative detainees are held today without trial, most of them former prisoners. Indictments for “incitement” have climbed to more than four times their prewar level. Of those detained in Gaza, some are still unaccounted for.
Each column is one part of the issue.
Part 1 · 9 cards
A day in an Israeli prison
Prisoners looked for the sun through a hole in the shower-room wall, and a whole day’s food could be counted in spoonfuls. Three times a day they knelt for the count, then slept on mattresses on the floor. This is a prisoner’s day in an Israeli prison, as those who lived it describe it and as state inspectors found it. Most of the testimonies cover the first months after October 2023; the figures run to September 2026.
This part reflects information available before publication on Oct. 9, 2026.
Read this partThe intro and ten parts
- IntroIntro4 cards · Published Oct. 8, 2026Since October 2023, there have been about 26,000 arrests in the occupied West Bank. More than 3,000 administrative detainees are held today without trial, most of them former prisoners. Indictments for “incitement” have climbed to more than four times their prewar level. Of those detained in Gaza, some are still unaccounted for.
- 1Part 1: A day in an Israeli prison9 cards · Published Oct. 9, 2026Prisoners looked for the sun through a hole in the shower-room wall, and a whole day’s food could be counted in spoonfuls. Three times a day they knelt for the count, then slept on mattresses on the floor. This is a prisoner’s day in an Israeli prison, as those who lived it describe it and as state inspectors found it. Most of the testimonies cover the first months after October 2023; the figures run to September 2026.
- 2Part 2: How many are held, and where8 cards · Published Oct. 9, 2026Israel holds 9,265 “security” prisoners, and 7,756 of them have not been sentenced. Its prisons have room for 14,500 and hold about 23,000. In al-Naqab (Ketziot), at least 16 prisoners died after Oct. 7, 2023, according to data published in November 2025. At Sde Teiman, an army camp, more than 1,000 detainees were held in pen-like structures, HaMoked says, while Rakefet, an underground wing of Ayalon prison, keeps its detainees without natural light.
- 3Part 3: Food in Israeli prisons10 cards · Published Oct. 10, 2026In Nafha prison, Samer Khawaireh was the one who handed out the food: a spoonful of labneh for breakfast, and jam measured by the lines on a plastic cup. Israel’s own inspectors found prisoners suffering from “extreme hunger,” and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said his policy was “the minimum of the minimum.” In September 2025, Israel’s High Court ruled that providing food is not a means of punishment. A year later, Haaretz wrote that “the deliberate starvation policy continues.”
- 4Part 4: Confiscated and denied in Israeli prisons7 cards · Published Oct. 10, 2026One blanket, one set of clothes and one pair of shoes for each prisoner: that is what was left in the cells of Nafha prison after Oct. 7, 2023, according to two testimonies given to B’Tselem. In al-Naqab, a detainee said, Qurans and prayer mats were confiscated and prayer was banned, whether in a group or alone. Israel’s national security minister wrote that canteen purchases had been stopped “in line with my policy.” The Israel Prison Service, for its part, said it was not aware of the claims.
- 5Part 5: Children, women and the sick in Israeli prisons7 cards · Published Oct. 10, 2026“Zaid” was 15 when he was arrested, and he spent most of his detention in Israel’s Megiddo prison, where, he says, one plate of rice came for 10 prisoners. In September 2026, Israeli prisons held more than 350 Palestinian children, nearly double the prewar number. A 2024 Israeli law lets judges sentence children as young as 12 to prison for murder or attempted murder defined as terrorism, and solitary confinement of children rose from one case in 2022 to 199 in 2024. In Damon prison, women prisoners get one hour a day outside their cells; in the clinic at Ramla prison, prisoners with chronic illnesses were held permanently.
- 6Part 6: The law: detention, trial and the death penalty10 cards · Published Oct. 11, 2026Ibrahim Fuda saw an Israeli judge over Skype for three minutes; then his detention was extended until the end of the war, as an “unlawful combatant.” Israel holds 1,419 people under that law as of October 2026, and a detainee can wait weeks before seeing a judge or a lawyer. Another Israeli law now requires most hearings for “security” prisoners to be held by video. Since May 2026, death by hanging has been the default punishment, in The Times of Israel’s words, for residents of the occupied West Bank convicted by Israeli military courts of “deadly terrorist acts.” A separate law has set up a special military court for those accused over the “October 7 attack.”
- 7Part 7: Sexual violence against Palestinian detainees9 cards · Published Oct. 11, 2026Three freed Palestinian prisoners told B’Tselem, each under his own name, how they were sexually assaulted in Israeli detention. At Sde Teiman, physicians who examined another detainee found broken ribs, a lung injury and a rectal tear. The indictment against the soldiers in that case carried no charge of sexual violence, and it was later withdrawn. In 2026, the United Nations blacklisted Israeli forces in its annual report on sexual violence in conflict. Israel calls the accusations “baseless.”Warning: This part includes testimonies of rape.
- 8Part 8: Deaths in Israeli custody, and accountability8 cards · Published Oct. 12, 2026Walid Ahmad, 17, from Silwad, died in Israel’s Megiddo prison in March 2025. The Israeli judge who closed the investigation into his death wrote that he was “apparently starved.” Since October 2023, 92 Palestinian prisoners whose identities have been made public have died in Israeli custody. More detainees died at Sde Teiman, a facility run by the army, than anywhere else. The army opened 57 investigations into detainee deaths, and by July 2026 none had led to an indictment.
- 9Part 9: Families and the Red Cross6 cards · Published Oct. 12, 2026Before the war, W.B., a prisoner from Qalqilya, saw his family once a month, on visits arranged by the Red Cross. From Oct. 7, 2023, family visits and phone calls were banned for Palestinian “security” prisoners, and Red Cross delegates were kept out of the prisons. Prisoners who came out describe complete isolation. Rights groups took the bans to Israel’s High Court, which ruled on the Red Cross visits in June 2026.
- 10Part 10: A ruling not enforced6 cards · Published Oct. 12, 2026On June 3, 2026, Israel’s High Court ruled that Israel must restore Red Cross visits to Palestinian prisoners. On Sept. 27, the court found that the government was not complying with its ruling. As of Oct. 12, 2026, we found nothing to show the visits had resumed. Months before the ruling, on Oct. 12, 2025, the day before Haitham Salem’s release, Red Cross representatives came to his prison to ask the prisoners to fill out a questionnaire. Salem, from Beit Lahiya in Gaza, says the prisoners refused and wondered why they had not come earlier.
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