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.
This intro reflects information available before publication on Oct. 8, 2026.
The card as published
Al-MuqaddasiThe Best Divisions 10th century
One day I sat with some builders—I mean in Shiraz. […] I described building in Palestine and discussed questions of construction with them. The master asked me, ‘Are you Egyptian?’ I replied, ‘No, Palestinian.’
In the cell, the day goes by on too little food, in a few square meters shared with others. The door opens for the count, then closes.
At home, mothers, wives and children ask every evening: Has he eaten? Is he still alive? The answer does not always come.
From the cell and the home, Issue 04 follows what has changed for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons over the past three years.
Ten parts, published one at a time. Each can be read on its own.
arrests in the occupied West Bank, including Jerusalem, since October 2023, among them more than 800 women and 2,000 children.
The figure excludes the thousands of arrests in Gaza, which cannot be accurately documented.
In detail
The Palestinian prisoners’ organizations count these arrests “since the start of the genocide in October 2023.” The count covers the occupied West Bank and occupied Jerusalem.
Gaza is left out. Arrests there number in the thousands, the organizations say, but the severe difficulties of documenting and tracking them keep them out of any total.
“The majority of ‘administrative detainees’ are former prisoners who have spent years in occupation prisons, much of that time under repeated administrative detention.”
As of October 2026, Israel holds 3,101 administrative detainees “without trial,” according to Israel Prison Service figures published by the Israeli rights group HaMoked.
In detail
The 3,101 administrative detainees are about a third of the 9,265 “security” prisoners in Israel Prison Service custody in October 2026. “Security” is the Prison Service’s own classification.
My administrative detention order was extended again and again during my detention: first for two months, then for two more, and then for another 50 days.
Z.A., from East Jerusalem, in testimony to B’Tselem
Before the war there were about 1,320, according to the prisoners’ organizations. The number rose to 2,070 in November 2023, then to 3,577 in September 2025, according to government figures published by HaMoked.
Z.A., from East Jerusalem, was arrested on Oct. 12, 2023, and held in administrative detention.
indictments for “incitement” filed in 2024 by a special Israeli army unit in the West Bank that pursues “incitement” in public and online.
In previous years there were 60 to 70 a year. Under a military order, Ynet reported, anyone convicted of incitement faces at least one year, half of it served in prison.
In detail
The unit was set up within the Israeli army’s Central Command at the start of the war and is led by military prosecutors in the occupied West Bank. Its work, in the words of Ynet’s Hebrew site, is “a manhunt on social media.”
A post, word, image, political position, or personal account may be interpreted as “incitement” …
Ynet called 2024 “a year entirely of war.” The earlier average, 60 to 70 indictments a year, came from the military prosecution in the West Bank. The unit’s 303 indictments in 2024 were more than four times the top of that range.
The military order was issued by the head of Central Command after the war began. It is called the “minimum punishment order.”
The prisoners’ organizations describe what this does to speech: fear becomes part of everyday communication, and people learn to censor themselves.
That was the Israeli authorities’ answer in 1,848 cases, out of about 5,400 tracing requests for Gaza detainees handled by the Israeli rights group HaMoked since October 2023.
In 38 cases, Israel’s High Court accepted Israel’s position that there was no indication of arrest. The fate and whereabouts of these people remained unknown as of May 2026, HaMoked says.
In detail
The phrase comes from a position paper HaMoked published on May 11, 2026, on the “enforced disappearances of Gaza residents in detention.” The paper examines the cases of Gaza residents who disappeared after Israeli forces detained them and whose fate or whereabouts remain unknown. It draws on about 5,400 tracing requests the group has handled since October 2023.
In 1,848 of those cases, the Israeli answer was “no indication” of arrest, “despite eyewitness testimonies in many cases,” HaMoked says. The group challenged those answers in 114 habeas corpus petitions to Israel’s High Court.
