B’Tselem says at least 84 Palestinians killed in Israeli torture camps
Employees at Nasser Medical Complex carry the body of a Palestinian prisoner who died in Israeli custody after Israel released his remains under a ceasefire agreement, southern Gaza, on 31 October 2025
Elis Gjevori reports in Middle East Eye on 20 January 2026:
Israel’s prison system has become a “network of torture camps” targeting Palestinians, according to new findings released by B’Tselem. The report details widespread abuse, deaths in custody and what the rights group describes as a deliberate state policy of violence.
It said on Tuesday that at least 84 Palestinians, including one child, have died in Israeli detention facilities since October 2023. B’Tselem stressed that the real figure is likely far higher, as many cases remain unverified or concealed.
According to the report, 50 of those killed were from the Gaza Strip, 31 from the occupied West Bank and three were Palestinian citizens of Israel.
The rights group added that Israeli authorities continue to withhold the bodies of 80 Palestinians, refusing to return them to their families as of January 2026.
Testimonies collected from released detainees describe what the group called systematic abuse across Israel’s prison system.
Methods documented include “systematic abuse, including physical and psychological violence, inhuman conditions, deliberate starvation and denial of medical treatment”.
Several former prisoners said they were subjected to, or witnessed, sexual violence while in custody.
‘Coordinated onslaught’
B’Tselem’s executive director, Yuli Novak, said the findings pointed to a coordinated campaign against Palestinians as a people.
“The Israeli regime has turned its prisons into a network of torture camps for Palestinians, as part of a coordinated onslaught on Palestinian society intended to destroy their existence as a collective,” Novak said.
“The genocide in Gaza and the ethnic cleansing in the West Bank are the most blatant manifestations of this policy,” she added.
Novak accused the international community of enabling Israel’s conduct through inaction. “Despite mounting evidence and numerous reports on Israel’s torture camps, the international community continues to grant this regime full immunity – effectively legitimising the continued torture, oppression and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and abandoning the victims,” she said.
B’Tselem said the abuse was neither accidental nor isolated. The report concludes that the policy is “declared, deliberate, and is coming from the very top”, with political backing and institutional protection.