‘Genocide’ behind bars: 32 Palestinians killed in Israeli detention in 2025

A coalition of leading Palestinian prisoner advocacy organizations has issued a damning report alleging Israel is perpetrating a systematic genocide against detainees, with documented cases of 32 prisoner fatalities occurring in 2025 alone. The joint publication from the Palestinian Commission of Detainees’ Affairs, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS), and Addameer characterizes Israeli detention facilities as centers of torture engineered to inflict prolonged physical and mental suffering, effectively implementing slow-execution policies. Since October 2023, at least 100 prisoner deaths under these severe conditions have been officially acknowledged by Israeli sources, with 86 identities disclosed, though the actual Palestinian fatality count in Israeli prisons remains undetermined. The report further indicates that Israeli authorities continue to withhold 94 Palestinian bodies, including 83 individuals killed during the Gaza conflict. Advocacy groups emphasize that the brutality witnessed over the past two years represents an unprecedented escalation, with prisoner deaths equaling the total documented over the preceding 24-year period. Detainees reportedly endure systematic torture, deliberate starvation, medical neglect, sexual violence, mass isolation, and deprivation of fundamental human needs. The report also highlights a campaign of mass arrests across the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, documenting over 21,000 detentions since October 2023—including 1,655 children and 650 women—with 7,000 arrests occurring in 2025 alone. This figure excludes Gaza arrests and detainees from Palestinian communities within Israel. Journalists and medical personnel are identified as particularly targeted groups. These operations allegedly involve systematic field executions, severe physical assaults, intentional property destruction, home ransacking, asset confiscation, and the use of human shields. As of December 2025, more than 9,300 Palestinians are imprisoned, with approximately 4,750 held without trial or charge. Israel continues to withhold information regarding hundreds of detainees seized from Gaza, leaving families without official knowledge of their relatives’ whereabouts or status. The report concludes that systematic impunity and judicial complicity enable these alleged crimes, reinforcing policies of apartheid and persecution.