Palestinian Political Prisoners Fact Sheet |

Since 1967 and Israel’s illegal occupation of historic Palestine, more than a million Palestinians have been detained in Israeli occupation prisons.

Those imprisoned are subjected to abuse of legal process, torture and mistreatment, forced transfer and enforced separation from family, as well as dire prison conditions. Prisoners include children, women, Palestinian rights activists and politicians, and imprisonment is used as a tool of occupation and apartheid to suppress Palestinian self-determination.

By not intervening or sanctioning Israel for these breaches, Australia is complicit in what amounts to significant and egregious violations of multiple international human rights laws, including the Geneva Convention, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention against Torture, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Current Statistics

Total Prisoners: 9,300 not including all Gaza detainees
Female Prisoners: 72, not including all female detainees from Gaza held in camps.
Children: 350, not including Gaza children in held in camps
Administrative Detainees: 3358

These figures do not include any information about the number of arrests from Gaza, as the occupation continues to refuse to disclose this information and carries out enforced disappearances against them. The number of imprisoned Palestinians from/in Gaza is estimated to be in the thousands. Enforced disappearance refers to the arrest, detention, or abduction of a person by state officials or agents acting with state authorisation, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the person’s fate or whereabouts.

Political Context

Israel has long wielded imprisonment as a tool of occupation and apartheid, actively suppressing Palestinian self-determination and resistance. Against a backdrop of ongoing state-sanctioned violence and expanding settlements, Palestinian imprisonment functions as a deliberate mechanism to control, punish, and erase Palestinian communities.

Since the Naksa in 1967, Israel has criminalised civic activity, including protests, flag displays, political material distribution, and gatherings of more than ten people—while implementing permit systems that restrict movement, establishing military courts to enforce a separate legal system for Palestinians, and using administrative detention to crush dissent. Palestinians live under thousands of military orders that limit employment, education, travel, protest, and access to farmland. These orders deliberately suppress civic life, restrict political expression, and define broad, ambiguous “offences” in violation of international humanitarian law.

Escalations in Israeli state violence consistently coincide with spikes in Palestinian arrests. Since 1967, imprisonment, administrative detention, and torture have become central instruments of occupation. During the First Intifada, Israel imprisoned around 120,000 Palestinians, normalising torture during interrogation. Most recently, intensified crackdowns target Palestinians speaking out during the Gaza genocide.

In November 2025, Israel passed new legislation that introduced the death penalty to Palestinian prisoners ‘convicted’ of killing Israelis, whether accidental or on purpose. This law disproportionately targets Palestinians and violates international human-rights norms and standards.

The human cost of Palestinian imprisonment is immense: one in five Palestinians has been arrested under military orders, and over 40% of men have faced imprisonment at least once in their life. Nearly every Palestinian family has endured the incarceration of at least one relative, often producing severe economic and social hardship.

Israel routinely targets Palestinian human rights activists and political leaders. Non-violent campaigners, journalists, lawyers, and photographers face arrests, travel bans, and administrative detention under Military Order 101. Ten members of the Palestinian Legislative Council are currently imprisoned, a clear effort to suppress political processes. Arrests, and the constant threat of arrest, are used systematically to silence Palestinians and undermine resistance.

Key Issues

Torture and Interrogation

In March 2026, United Nations Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese released a report titled Torture and Genocide, outlining the ways in which Israel’s treatment of Palestinians since 7 October 2023 has involved an escalating, systematic, and widespread use of torture, both in detention and through broader forms of coercion. This torture forms a structural component of Israel’s ongoing genocide. The report documents the abuse of detainees, inhumane prison conditions, and Israeli violence not as isolated incidents, but as part of an organised system, used on an unprecedented scale that amounts to collective punishment.

Torture and cruel mistreatment are pervasive in Israeli prisons. Torture of Palestinian prisoners, deemed ‘terrorists’, is a widely and publicly known fact, legitimised by Israel’s legal system which deems torture permissible in certain circumstances if deemed “urgent”. This contravenes both the United Nations Convention Against Torture and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Palestinians are subject to harsh interrogation methods that can last up to 75 days without access to legal counsel. Interrogation periods may be renewed indefinitely without formal charge. Reported interrogation methods include beatings, stress positions, sleep deprivation, prolonged interrogation sessions lasting up to 20 hours, sensory deprivation, solitary confinement, and threats against family members. Palestinians have faced such treatment for alleged offences including stone-throwing or participation in unauthorised political activity.

Between the start of the Gaza genocide and August 2025, at least six Palestinians have died during interrogations according to B’Tselem, and another 84 have died while imprisoned. Numerous other organisations including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and United Nations human rights bodies have raised concerns about Israel’s interrogation practices.

Despite extensive documentation, accountability remains limited. Investigations are often dismissed or justified, and protective measures such as recording of interrogations have not been fully implemented.

Administrative Detention

Administrative detention refers to the detention of individuals without charge or trial for renewable six month periods based on secret, undisclosed evidence. The number of administrative detainees in Israeli occupation prisons increased at an unprecedented historical rate after October 7, 2023.

Since 1967, the Israeli military has issued more than 50,000 administrative detention orders against Palestinians, with around 24,000 issued between 2000 and 2014. The number of detainees has risen during periods of heightened conflict, reaching about 1,700 during the First Intifada in 1989 and around 1,140 during the Second Intifada in 2003.

Under international law, administrative detention is permitted only in very specific life threatening circumstances. It can only be applied on an individual, case-by-case basis without discrimination and it must not be used in place of criminal prosecution when there is no or insufficient evidence for a conviction. Israel’s large-scale and collective use of administrative detention violates these limitations, in direct contravention of both the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Forced Transfer

Most of the prisons detaining Palestinians are located inside Israel, in contradiction of the Geneva Convention, which requires an occupying power to detain residents of occupied territory within their original territory. Consequently, prisoners face significant barriers to contact with the outside world. Lawyers and family members of detainees are frequently denied permits to enter Israel on “security grounds”. Some imprisoned Palestinians have been denied visits for years.

The issue of transparency in Israeli jails is significant, with independent monitoring agencies like International Red Cross, United Nations and Human Rights Watch prohibited from accessing detention facilities inside Israel. This makes monitoring of conditions, treatment and legal processes impossible. Information about administrative detention orders, interrogation methods, and prisoner treatment is often withheld or restricted. This prevents the international community from fully understanding or challenging the circumstances of detention.

Imprisonment of Children

Since 2000, around 13,000 Palestinian children have been detained by Israeli authorities. Currently, 41% of children in Israeli prisons are held under administrative detention without charge or trial, and roughly 700 children from the West Bank face prosecution in military courts each year. While the UN defines a child as under 18, Israeli military law sets the minimum age of criminal responsibility at 12, and even minor offenses like stone-throwing can carry sentences of up to 20 years.

Children are treated similarly to adults, despite the existence of a separate juvenile military court under Military Order 1644. Protections remain minimal, children may be interrogated without a lawyer or family member present, coerced into confessions, arrested at night, denied family contact, placed in solitary confinement, and sometimes held in the same facilities as adults.

Israeli military orders and courts violate international law. Practices such as abusive interrogation and family isolation constitute torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, violating Articles 37 and 40 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Military Courts

Most Palestinians in the Occupied Territory are tried in Israeli military courts, rather than civilian courts. Conviction rates in these courts are extremely high. Several aspects of the system are flawed, including the independence of judges who are generally serving military officers, the limited access to legal counsel for those accused, and the excessive use of plea bargains which detainees accept in a context of threats of ongoing detention.

Under humanitarian law, Israel has the power to establish military courts however their jurisdiction must be limited to security related offences. Israel uses military courts to prosecute a wide range of offences beyond security, ranging from public disturbance, standard criminal offences, “illegal” presence in Israel, as well as traffic offences.

Military court systems also violate international fair-trial standards. Detainees do not receive prompt notice of the charges against them, sometimes learning the details only at their first court hearing. During interrogation, detainees are held in ‘incommunicado detention’ with no contact with the outside world, have no access to legal representation and face practical barriers like no access to confidential meeting spaces and court documents written in Hebrew, hindering the preparation of a defense. The burden of proof is also reversed in military courts, with detainees not granted the presumption of innocence. Consequently, very low acquittal rates are common in military courts.

In contrast, Jewish residents of the illegal settlements are tried under Israeli civil law, with full rights to legal representation and a public and transparent trial. It is very rare that settlers or soldiers involved in violent crimes, ranging from looting to killing, are investigated or charged. Legally, settlers should be governed by the same military laws and courts applicable to Palestinians.

Prison Conditions

Palestinian prisoners are held in incredibly dire conditions in Israeli prisons, which have worsened since October 7 2023. Concerns from organisations like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the International Committee of the Red Cross include overcrowding, inadequate medical care and medical negligence, limited access to visitors, and no access to education.

Concerningly, since October 2023, prisoners have reported increased incidents of severe violence at the hands of prison guards, sexual assault and rape, humiliation and degradation, sleep deprivation, prohibition of religious practices with punishment, confiscation of belongings. Mistreatment of Palestinians in prisons is linked to systematic and institutional policies aimed at dehumanising Palestinians, with Israeli NGO B’Tselem describing the prisons as ‘torture camps’.

International Law

As an occupying power under the Fourth Geneva Convention, Israel has specific obligations regarding the treatment and protection of Palestinian Prisoners. These include not transferring prisoners outside the occupied territory, not subjecting detainees to torture or physical or moral coercion, ensuring that prisoners are granted a fair trial, and ensuring that children in detention are protected.

Australia, as a state party to the Geneva Convention, must ensure Israel’s compliance with international humanitarian law using diplomatic, political, or economic influence, including supporting referrals to the International Criminal Court for direct violations.

Australia is also bound by other international agreements, including the Convention Against Torture and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. These treaties require states to oppose torture, prevent cruel treatment, and protect children in detention. Australia must legally support investigations, accountability, and the protection of detainees’ rights under these agreements.

APAN’s Key Asks:

Australia must:

Publicly acknowledge violations

Explicitly recognise that Israel’s detention of Palestinians, including administrative detention, torture, denial of due process and the detention of children, constitutes grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and the Convention Against Torture.
Publicly reject Israel’s prison and detention policies as violations of international law, not legitimate security measures.

Demand immediate protections and access

Publicly call for unrestricted and regular access by the International Committee of the Red Cross to all Palestinian detainees held by Israel, in line with Israel’s obligations as an occupying power.
Demand an immediate end to administrative detention, incommunicado detention, torture as an interrogation method, the detention of children and the transfer of detainees outside occupied territory.

Trigger accountability measures

Call for imposition of targeted sanctions under Australia’s autonomous sanctions regime against Israeli officials, agencies and entities responsible for the administration of military detention and prison systems linked to serious human rights abuses
Call for suspension of security, military and law-enforcement cooperation with Israeli bodies implicated in detention-related violations until compliance with international law is demonstrated.

End Australian complicity

Ensure Australian government funds, trade and cooperation do not support companies, institutions or programs linked to Israel’s prison, detention or surveillance systems.
Publicly rule out engagement with Israeli authorities responsible for the detention regime.

Palestinian Political Prisoners Fact Sheet