Local sources have reported that thousands of Palestinian prisoners being held by Israel have been removed from cells and tortured this week, under the pretext of the Israeli-U.S. war with Iran.
Palestinian prisoners are the most vulnerable people, as they are held without rights or access to lawyers, and over 40 have been tortured to death by Israeli guards over the past 2.5 years, with no repercussions.
The coordinated attacks carried out by the repressive forces in the prisons of the Israeli occupation against prisoners over the past two weeks have included isolation, and the use of sound bombs, pepper gas and clubs against the prisoners. These add to the record of continuous violations against the captive hostages, and is a violation of international humanitarian law
These attacks, which are centered in the desert Negev prison Sde Teiman and the Gilbwa prison, resulted in the injury of a number of prisoners and their transfer to hospitals as a result of severe beatings. This reveals the extent of the brutality practised by the prison administration and confirms that the lives of prisoners are under real danger in light of the continued policy of repression and medical neglect.
The Palestinian popular movement issued a statement warning the Israeli occupation against persisting these crimes against prisoners, and holding it fully responsible for their lives, stressing that the issue of prisoners will remain at the forefront of our people’s priorities, who will not allow these violations to be passed silently.
The movement called on the Palestinian people and the free people of the world everywhere to escalate solidarity activities with prisoners, and stand by them in the face of policies of repression. They called on international human rights and humanitarian institutions to assume their responsibilities and take urgent action to stop these crimes.
Israeli authorities escalated the use of arbitrary administrative detention against Palestinians, as part of a widening campaign of mass arrests, according to the Palestinian Prisoners and Freed Prisoners Affairs Commission and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club.
As of early March, the total number of administrative detainees in Israeli prisons reached 3,442, including 20 women and dozens of children, accounting for over 36% of all Palestinian prisoners.
Israeli prison authorities held 9,500 prisoners and detainees as of the first week of March, indicating a 2.15 percent increase from February, according to reports from Palestinian prisoners’ organizations.
Currently, there are 73 female prisoners and 350 individuals under the age of 18 detained in the notorious prisons of Megiddo and Ofer.
The number of administrative detainees is 3,442, the highest percentage among those sentenced, arrested, or classified as “unlawful combatants.” They represent 36 percent of all Palestinians in Israeli prisons, where individuals can be indefinitely detained without charge in military detention centers.
There are also 1,249 “unlawful combatants” detained from inside the Gaza Strip after Oct. 7, 2023, as well as those who were detained from Lebanon and Syria.
This week, the Deputy Speaker of the 
Israeli Knesset, Limor Son Har-Melech, appeared in a costume themed “Death Penalty for Terrorists.”
She wore a uniform resembling that of the Israel Prison Service, along with pins depicting a hanging noose and the “Third Temple.”
In her hands, she held a rope noose and a syringe as part of the outfit.
Her husband’s costume represented the themes “Occupation, Expulsion, Settlement.” He carried a prop gun labeled “Occupation,” a small model airplane marked “Expulsion,” and a miniature house labeled “Settlement.”
Also this week, an RSF investigation found that two Palestinian journalists, Nidal Al-Wahidi and Haytham Abdel Wahed, presumed dead since they went missing since 7 October 2023, are actually being held in Israeli secret detention. They were abducted when they were covering events in the northern Gaza Strip. Reports and eyewitnesses placed them near the Beit Hanoun crossing shortly before an Israeli airstrike hit.
Despite searches by family members in hospitals, “there was no sign of them,” RSF reports. The investigation explores the possibility that they were detained inside the Green Line. The Israeli army denied holding them, yet RSF highlights a photograph that fueled suspicions, showing detainees lying face down with numbers on their backs.
Further investigations by RSF are believed to back up the detention theory, as an ex-Palestinian prisoner met a detainee who had heard Nidal al-Wahidi’s name during interrogation in Ashkelon.
A 2025 report by the Times of Israel found that “Palestinian security detainees held in Israeli prisons have suffered from severe and systematic violence from prison guards, deprivation of food, and medical neglect, while also having been subjected to unsanitary conditions that caused and exacerbated outbreaks of disease in the prisons.
“Inspectors from the Public Defense Office who visited four prisons in 2024 documented seeing skeletal prisoners and witnessing physical evidence of beatings and medical neglect on the bodies of prisoners they interviewed.
“The reports were made public after a year-long legal battle by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), which filed a freedom of information request to gain access to the documents, after the Justice Ministry refused to release them.”
Since that report was released, the situation for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel has only gotten worse.
