Three Years of Genocide: New Report by Palestinian Prisoners’ Institutions Warns of Unprecedented Escalation Against Political Prisoners
Ramallah, occupied Palestine — October 6, 2026: Palestinian prisoners’ institutions have released a new report documenting a dramatic escalation in the scale and severity of crimes carried out by the Israeli occupation’s prison system against Palestinian political prisoners and detainees since the beginning of the ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip.
The report documents approximately 26,000 arrests in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, including more than 800 women and 2,000 children, while thousands more arrests in the Gaza Strip remain undocumented. As of October 2026, approximately 9,300 Palestinians are held in Israeli occupation prisons, nearly half—49%— are held without charge or trial. This includes 3,101 Palestinians held under “administrative detention” and 1,419 more people held under the “unlawful combatants" law.
Over 100 Palestinian political prisoners have been killed or have died in detention since the genocide began, with the identities of only 92 of them disclosed by occupation authorities. Dozens of martyred Palestinians abducted from occupied Gaza remain forcibly disappeared, while the occupation continues to withhold the bodies of 100 Palestinian prisoners who were martyred in detention before and after the genocide.
The report documents systematic torture, starvation, denial of medical care, sexual violence, collective assaults, isolation, ill-treatment, and direct and indirect killing, alongside the expanded use of "administrative detention" and “incitement” charges as tools of collective control and repression. The institutions also warn that the March 2026 law enabling the execution of Palestinian political prisoners marks a dangerous shift toward legislating the death penalty as an instrument of repression.
The report further condemns the continued denial of access to Palestinian prisoners by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), despite an Israeli Supreme Court ruling finding the denial of visits unlawful, warning that the obstruction of independent monitoring leaves detainees increasingly vulnerable and weakens international accountability.
The institutions call for the immediate, comprehensive and unconditional release of all Palestinian political prisoners and detainees; the dismantling of the discriminatory military courts system; an end to the execution law and all death sentences against Palestinians; decisive international action to prevent executions and ensure accountability; and immediate implementation of the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion, including an end to the unlawful colonial occupation and the dismantling of its settlement structures.
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