Deaths of Palestinian detainees surge to 110 since Ben-Gvir took office, Israeli report finds

An Israeli media investigation has revealed a sharp and unprecedented rise in the number of Palestinian detainees who have died in Israeli custody since National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir took office.

According to the Israeli news website Walla, 110 Palestinian “security detainees” died between January 2023 and June 2025, most of them in hospitals after being transferred from prisons and detention facilities. The report noted that the figure is the highest recorded in decades, far surpassing previously known data.

Former detainees released from Israeli prisons told Walla that Palestinian prisoners are subjected to severe physical abuse and systematic torture, adding that dozens had been executed or beaten to death inside detention centres.

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The revelations come as Ben-Gvir continues to push forward legislation that would allow the death penalty for Palestinians accused of carrying out attacks. The Knesset’s National Security Committee was scheduled to discuss the bill on Monday in its second and third readings.

Ben-Gvir has repeatedly defended his hard-line policies, telling associates that he is “proud to have stopped the summer camps in prisons,” claiming that detention facilities had “returned to being prisons after years of being luxury hotels for terrorists”.

According to figures cited by Walla, the number of detainee deaths in recent months far exceeds estimates issued by human rights organisations, which in previous years reported only a few dozen deaths over extended periods.

The total number of Palestinians currently held in Israeli prisons is estimated at no fewer than 10,000, following large-scale arrest campaigns since the start of the war, alongside the release of around 1,700 detainees from Gaza and 250 prisoners freed as part of a prisoner exchange agreement.

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