As of September 2026, 9,329 Palestinians are being held in Israeli prisons. A third of them are in administrative detention — imprisoned on security grounds without criminal charges or trial. Another 1,393, from Gaza, are being held as “unlawful combatants,” itself a form of administrative detention. The figures were laid out on Wednesday by Neil Tobin, Deputy Director of the UN Human Rights Office in Palestine, speaking at the 63rd session of the Human Rights Council.
“The systematic use of administrative detention, on security grounds without criminal charge or trial, continues to expose Palestinian detainees to prolonged arbitrary deprivation of liberty, torture and other ill-treatment, and enforced disappearance,” Tobin said.
The most harrowing part of his address, however, concerned those who have died behind bars. According to the UN Office, 92 Palestinians have died in Israeli custody since October 2023. Among the documented cases is that of Walid al-Basha, who died in March 2025 at the age of seventeen.
On this point, Tobin used language that amounts to a call for accountability: “Unless every death is investigated in line with international standards, Israel remains responsible for each death in custody.”
Administrative detention is a tool provided for under the military legislation applied in the occupied territories: it allows a person to be held on the basis of classified material that neither the detainee nor their lawyer are permitted to see, for renewable periods with no overall limit. It has long been criticized by international human rights bodies precisely because it suspends the right to know the charges one faces and to mount a defense before a judge.
The figures and assessments cited are those released by the UN Human Rights Office in Palestine in its address to the Human Rights Council.
