WEST BANK, (Palestine Foundation Information Center), The Palestine Center for Prisoner Studies has confirmed that Israeli occupation authorities continued to escalate the use of administrative detention throughout 2025, issuing more than 7,715 orders, a mix of new and renewed detention decisions without charge or trial.
The center stated that Israel systematically uses administrative detention as a form of collective punishment against Palestinians. Thousands have been detained without knowing the charges against them, based solely on secret intelligence reports compiled by the Shin Bet, which oversees all administrative detention files.
According to the center’s director, researcher Riyad Al-Ashqar, the Israeli occupation drastically intensified its use of administrative detention since the onset of the genocidal war on Gaza on October 7, 2023. More than 17,000 administrative detention orders have been issued since then, without indictments or legal convictions, extending arbitrary detention for some prisoners up to three consecutive years.
Widespread arrests across the occupied West Bank and Occupied Jerusalem have led to a surge in administrative detainees, with over 3,400 currently held, representing about 35% of all detainees in Israeli prisons (totaling 9,500). This marks a sharp rise compared to 1,300 administrative detainees before the war, essentially tripling the number.
Al-Ashqar highlighted that the policy has affected a broad cross-section of Palestinian society, including activists, educators, university students, children, women, and elected officials.
Minors are also subjected to administrative detention. Currently, around 80 children under 18 are detained.
Al-Ashqar emphasized that many freed prisoners are re-arrested shortly after release under new administrative detention orders, and dozens of inmates are kept in prison under administrative detention after completing their court-issued sentences.
The policy even targets former prisoners released under the latest prisoner exchange deal. Many of them were rearrested and placed under new administrative orders, some after spending years in Israeli prisons.
Additionally, the administrative detainee count does not include over 1,200 prisoners from Gaza, whom Israel classifies as “unlawful combatants,” a status similar to administrative detention, detained without charges, trial, or time limits, in violation of international law. According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, civilians from Gaza should be granted legal protection.
The number of Gaza detainees labeled “unlawful combatants” dropped following the release of over 2,000 prisoners in last year’s exchange deal. Prior to the deal, Israel claimed over 2,800 such detainees. However, this figure excludes many Gazan prisoners held under enforced disappearance.
Al-Ashqar accused Israel of using administrative detention as a weapon to strip Palestinians of their lives behind bars without legal justification. He stressed that the policy violates international law, with secret charges, preventing detainees from knowing or challenging the accusations against them, depriving them of fair trial standards.
To date, 11 administrative detainees have died in Israeli custody, the most recent being Sakher Zaoul from Bethlehem, who died due to medical neglect.
