Palestinian detainee dies in Israeli prison, bringing toll since war to 92

Jack Khoury reports in Haaretz on 17 September 2026:

A 21-year-old Palestinian from the West Bank who had been held in detention without trial since late last year died at Ofer Prison, the Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners Club announced on Wednesday.

Lawyers and relatives of Moataz al-Atrash, who has been under administrative detention since October 5, 2025, said that he did not suffer from any health problems before his arrest.  The groups blamed Israeli authorities for his death, adding that 92 Palestinian prisoners and detainees have died in custody since the beginning of the war in the Gaza Strip.

According to the groups, the actual death toll is higher, but the lack of information regarding dozens of detainees makes it difficult to gather data. The Israel Prison Service has not yet responded.

Administrative detainees are held under a protocol defined as “preventive detention,” which is based on intelligence that is not disclosed to the detainees or their lawyers. There are no evidentiary court hearings for their cases, and the detainees’ lawyers are not privy to evidence against them, other than a summary of the suspicions against their clients.

According to the two Palestinian groups, prisons and detention facilities systematically mistreat Palestinian prisoners and detainees, who are tortured, starved, subjected to physical and sexual violence and medical neglect, alongside harsh detention conditions that allow infectious diseases such as scabies to spread.

They noted the limited access of human rights organizations and humanitarian bodies, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, to the detention facilities.  The organizations urged the international community and human rights groups to urge Israel to stop the abuse of prisoners, investigate the circumstances of their deaths and guarantee international supervision of detention conditions.

Data published by the Palestinian prisoner institutions indicate that as of early September 2026, approximately 9,350 Palestinian prisoners and detainees are held in Israeli prisons, including 90 women and more than 350 minors.

Of those, 3,176 are held in administrative detention without charges or trial. An additional 1,393 are held under the Internment of Unlawful Combatants Law, most of whom are detainees from Gaza.

The organizations noted that this figure does not include all detainees from the Strip held in military-run facilities but does include detainees from Lebanon and Syria.

A report published last year said that the detention conditions of Palestinian prisoners have significantly deteriorated since October 7, 2023, with many suffering from severe hunger.

According to the report, which is based on numerous visits by Israel Public Defender’s Office representatives to detention facilities, the Israel Prison Service introduced a meager food menu for security prisoners after the outbreak of the war in Gaza, a move that resulted in “severe hunger, manifested in sharp weight loss and accompanying physical symptoms, including extreme physical weakness and even fainting.”

The report also found that the rise in the number of prisoners and detainees since the start of the war has worsened overcrowding in the facilities.

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