🔴 Number of Palestinians in prison under ‘administrative detention’ highest on record.

Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS)
6/1/2025

PPS, Ramallah: The percentage of Palestinians held under the Israeli occupation’s notorious policy of ‘administrative detention’ - without trial or charge – is the highest on record since the start of the occupation, based on the data available to and gathered by the PPS and all Palestinian prisoners defense groups. 

While the number of administrative detainees began to rise before the genocide in Gaza, it has reached its peak in recent weeks. Before the war on Gaza, there were about 1,320 Palestinians held in administrative detention. Today, in January 2025, that number has risen to 3,376 administrative detainees including 95 children and 22 women. This figure constitutes 32 percent of the total number of currently identified Palestinian detainees and prisoners, which number more than 10,400 people. 

The PPS believes that the occupation has gone to new lengths in its use of administrative detention, turning it into somewhat of a life sentence. One example is the prominent case of 56-year-old Palestinian journalist Nidal Abu Aker. The father-of-three was arrested for the first time when he was a child of 11 years old, and has spent a total of 20 years behind bars, the vast majority of them - about 17 years - were in administrative detention, without trial or charge. He remains incarcerated in the occupation’s Naqab (Negev) prison to this day. 

Palestinian prisoners are being exposed to an unprecedented level of abuse, particularly since the genocide in Gaza. This includes severe forms of torture such as electric shocks and waterboarding, intentional starvation, and other violations of their key human rights, such as the right to adequate amounts of food and water, as well as life-saving medical care. These violations have led to the killing of dozens of Palestinian prisoners since the war on Gaza.

Of the 54 identified Palestinian detainees killed in custody since October 2023, four people were being held under administrative detention.

Administrative detention is an oppressive measure used for decades against countless Palestinians living under Israeli occupation. Residents are imprisoned without trial or charge, under the order of a regional military commander. Neither they nor their lawyers are informed of their supposed offense, and therefore have no way to defend themselves in court. Detainees can be held indefinitely under this order, meaning prisoners have no way of knowing if and when they will be released.