Executive summary

Since October 7, 2023, Israel has dramatically escalated its use of mass arrest, arbitrary detention, and systemic torture against Palestinians. More than 18,500 Palestinians from the West Bank and East Jerusalem have been arrested in the biggest campaign of mass arrest since the second intifada. Today, more than 11 000 Palestinians are detained in Israeli occupation prisons and detention centers, including more than 3,500 administrative detainees held without charge or trial based on a “secret” file. Up until now, the number of Palestinian detainees from Gaza remain unknown.

While Israel is committing its genocide in Gaza, Palestinians all over the occupied territories, including the West Bank and East Jerusalem are being subjected to arbitrary arrests, detention and torture. This report particularly focuses on the arrest and detention of Palestinians from the West Bank and East Jerusalem to underline the continuity between the genocidal acts committed in Gaza and the violations committed in the West Bank. 

Inside Israeli prisons and detention centers, Palestinians are subjected to constant violence, organized at every stage of the detention from their arrest to their release, including during their transport, arrival in prison, interrogation, movements, transfers, and in their daily life in prison. Torture is at the center of the Israeli occupation carceral system.

Addameer, based on testimonies of Palestinian detainees from the West Bank and East Jerusalem, has documented a drastic increase in the use of widespread physical torture, psychological abuse, sexual violence, and inhumane detention conditions since October 7, 2023. Violence is systemic with constant violent cell raids, intense beatings at prisoners’ arrival in prison, violence during transfers and movement of detainees, including with the prison, as well as extreme inhuman detentions conditions: prolonged solitary confinement, overcrowding of cells, denial of family visits, starvation policies, and medical neglect. Testimonies also reveal an increasing use of sexual violence against detainees including detainees being raped, sexually assaulted, forced into degrading positions, beaten on the genitals, and threatened with the rape of family members. These methods aim to destroy detainees physically and psychologically and dismantle the Palestinian social fabric.

This regime of detention and torture cannot be understood in isolation. It is directly linked to Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza. The systemic torture and inhumane conditions inflicted on Palestinian detainees reinforce this genocidal project by preventing any political action, targeting Palestinian identity, and destroying prisoners’ physical and mental health. Senior Israeli officials have explicitly incited violence against detainees, describing them as “human animals” and pledging to worsen prison conditions as a matter of state policy. The violence in prisons is not incidental, but an integral part of Israel’s broader policy of domination.

The evidence presented in this report, based on detainee testimonies, establishes that Israeli authorities are committing grave breaches of international law. The systematic use of torture, sexual violence and inhumane detention conditions amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and acts of genocide. The prison system operates as an extension of the battlefield - designed to collectively punish, terrorize, and eliminate Palestinians. These practices constitute a deliberate and calculated policy of domination, collective punishment, and suppression of opposition to Israel’s occupation, colonization, and genocide.

Full report attached.