There are currently over 9,300 Palestinian political prisoners, including about 350 children. This also includes 3,358 administrative detainees — “Palestinians abducted from the occupied West Bank and are held without trial or charge” — and 1,251 “illegal combatants” — “Palestinians abducted from occupied Gaza and are held without trial or charge under the ‘unlawful combatants’.” Since 1967, “326 Palestinians have been martyred inside the prison system, including 89 people since the genocide in Gaza began. This figure includes only those who have been identified. Dozens from Gaza remain forcibly disappeared.”

Source: Quds News Network. Caption: “Families of Palestinian detainees gather in Nablus, demanding the release of their sons from Israeli detention camps where they are held under inhuman conditions.”

Israel continues to escalate its attacks on Palestinians, raiding their homes and arbitrarily arresting dozens of people on a weekly basis.

“For years, Israel has systematically targeted Palestinian civil society organisations to quash the viability of Palestinian life on both sides of the Green Line, in particular, dismantling organisations that develop Palestinian communities. Israel carries out arbitrary arrests and detentions of Palestinian human rights defenders, repeatedly extends administrative detentions, on secret evidence, with no due process, subjects detainees to inhumane and cruel treatment, destroys properties, designates and outlaws Palestinian civil society (CSOs), raids and seals Palestinian CSO offices, and bans humanitarian organisations, in repressive acts of settler colonial violence to entrench its apartheid regime, destroy the Palestinian group, and advance its unlawful settlement enterprise.” — Al-Haq

Most recently, this included widespread raids and arrests of Palestinians for alleged membership of the Health Work Committees (HWC), a Palestinian non-governmental health and developmental organization. The Palestinian Human Rights Organisations Council (PHROC) and Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO) sent over 50 letters to embassies and consulates calling for urgent intervention for their immediate release. As of 15 July 2026, Israel is also still arbitrarily detaining at least 55 Palestinian healthcare workers from Gaza, including 15 doctors.

On 20 July 2026, Canada’s diplomatic mission to Palestine released a joint statement demanding Israel immediately allow International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) representatives to visit Palestinian prisoners. Israel has barred ICRC visits since October 2023.

Source: Canada in Palestine.

Palestinian prisoners’ have always been subject to horrific abuse, including isolation, medical negligence, sexual violence, and torture. In a 2023 report, Al-Haq, Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, and Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) highlighted the realities specifically for disabled Palestinian political prisoners. In one prison, known as a ‘clinic’ or ‘the slaughterhouse’, disabled Palestinian prisoners are detained in “incredibly cruel detention conditions.” Those who have be imprisoned there describe “pervasive negligence, lack of specialized medical staff, medical devices, and the absence and denial of urgent medical interventions for prisoners who are already diagnosed with grave maladies.”

On 26 June 2026, Addameer and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society, Commission of Detainees’ Affairs released a new report titled “A Network for the Production of Torture: Thousands of Palestinians Face Systematic Torture, Abuse in Israeli Occupation Prisons”.

“In the wake of the ongoing crime of genocide against the Palestinian people, these prisons have been transformed into a central arena where the realities of this crime are most starkly manifested. This includes systematic and entrenched policies of murder, starvation, dehumanization, humiliation, and the deliberate infliction of severe physical and psychological suffering on detainees…Documented testimonies show that crimes of torture operations from the very moment of arrest through brutal physical assault, threats, intimidation, enforced disappearance, and painful and prolonged shackling. Multiple torture methods are used, including shabeh (prolonged painful stress positions), electric shocks, burning with boiling water and chemical substances, pulling out fingernails, and prolonged deprivation of sleep, food, water, medical treatment, and restroom use. Furthermore, it involves the use of extreme noise, deliberate humiliation, and forcing detainees to remain in degrading positions, reaching grave sexual violations and documented crimes of rape.” — Palestinian Prisoner’s Society, Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association

In July 2026, both the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society and Rehab Nazaal (Palestinian artist) exposed just one more example of this type of torture. On Dimitri Lascaris’ podcast, Nazaal explained the relentless and decades long story of detainee Ghassan Zawahreh, and the impact on not only him, but also his family. In a statement, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society detailed Israeli’s recent torture of Zawahreh, who was “subjected to degrading strip searches and severe beatings since being transferred from Ganot-Rimon prison to Negev prison on June 8.” Israeli prison forces also attempted to kill him by shooting him with three rubber bullets. Around the same time, Israeli guards shot Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti in the leg with a rubber bullet.

Israeli torture of Palestinian detainees is “systemic” and continual.

“[T]he continued denial of access for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and independent international bodies to Palestinian detainees, alongside restrictions imposed on the work of lawyers and human rights organizations, constitutes a systematic attempt to hide evidence and obliterate the features of the crimes committed within the Israeli prison system.” — Palestinian Prisoner’s Society, Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association

These two organizations demand that the international community:

• Activate the principle of universal jurisdiction to prosecute all Israeli officials involved in these crimes.
• Ensure the accountability of all officials, from political and military leaders to prison officials and soldiers, and prevent impunity from punishment.
• Impose effective international measures and sanctions on the Israeli occupation state to halt grave and systematic violations.
• Ensure immediate and unconditional access for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and independent international bodies to all Israeli detention facilities.
• Provide international protection for Palestinian political prisoners and detainees, and guarantee the victims’ rights to justice, redress, and reparations.

While Canada’s diplomatic mission to Palestine has joined a statement demanding ICRC visits, Canada must do more. In solidarity with these demands, we call on Canada to use all available measures to uphold its responsibility under Article 1 of the Fourth Geneva Convention to ensure violations of the Convention do not occur under any circumstance. This includes sanctions on Israel and an end to all support for the Israeli military, police, or prison services, whether through strategic support, weapons, technology, or investments.

Canada must do more than condemn. They must take real action.

Demand Action