Israel still holds thousands of Palestinians hostage
Polygraph | Newsletter n°318 | 15 Oct 2025
IN THIS NEWSLETTER: Even after the ceasefire deal, Israel has thousands more Palestinians detained than pre-October 2023.
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Situation
As part of the ceasefire agreement, Hamas freed the remaining 20 living Israelis captured in October 2023, and Israel released about 1,950 Palestinians.
The media has apparently collectively agreed to refer to the Israelis as hostages and the Palestinians as prisoners, even though fewer than 15% of the latter group were ever charged with a crime. The rest of the approximately 1,950 Palestinians were de facto hostages. Per CNN: “More than 1,700 of those released were detainees who had been held without charge by Israeli forces” since October 2023. People detained indefinitely without charge or trial to be used as bargaining chips in a future negotiation are hostages.
Over 85 times more Palestinian than Israeli hostages were freed this week. However, I don’t get the impression that the media is giving 85 times more airtime reporting on the Palestinian hostages’ experiences, do you?
Context
Data from the Israel Prison Service show that in September 2023, the Israeli military set what was then the record for the number of Palestinians it held in administrative detention — the practice of detaining someone without charge or trial for an indefinite period of time, including children and human rights activists — with 1,264, out of a total 5,088 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.1
This month (before the hostage exchange), Israel held 3,544 Palestinians hostage as administrative detainees, part of a record 11,056 total Palestinian prisoners.2
How many hostages are still held by Israel?
Due to the nature of their confinement, Palestinian administrative detainees are hostages. Subtracting the number freed through the ceasefire deal from the reported amount earlier this month, Israel is still holding an estimated 1,844 Palestinians hostage in administrative detention3 — 580 more than in September 2023,4 which I stress was once a record high.
However, I don’t think the number of administrative detainees fully covers Israel’s de facto hostage population. After all, nearly all the Palestinians held in Israeli prisons were never proven guilty.
Below is a categorical breakdown of Israel’s Palestinian prisoners,5 who experience a radically different Israeli justice system than Israelis do:
3,544 administrative detainees (detained indefinitely without charge or trial)
2,673 unlawful combatants (classified as neither civilian nor combatant, denied the rights of both, and can be detained indefinitely without trial)
3,378 remand detainees (charged and detained for the duration of military court proceedings, which can drag on indefinitely)
1,461 sentenced prisoners
This means that only 13% of the 11,056 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons have been charged and sentenced. Furthermore, the vast majority of sentenced prisoners were never proven guilty: their cases were decided not after a careful consideration of the evidence, but before the trial even began, when Israel initially decided to detain them.6
This relates to the above category of “remand detainees” — those charged then detained for the duration of the legal proceedings, from pretrial onward. This is rare for Israelis but the norm for Palestinians, per B’Tselem: “With the exception of individuals tried for traffic violations, remanding Palestinian defendants in custody for the duration of the proceedings is the rule rather than the exception.”
For Palestinians, remand detention is effectively limitless. If a trial doesn’t end after 18 months — already a lengthy period for someone who hasn’t been proven guilty — the defendant is brought before an Israeli Military Court of Appeals judge who decides to release them or lengthen their detention by another six months. The judge can extend their detention in subsequent hearings, too. Because of this, Palestinian defendants risk more jail time even if they’re ultimately acquitted than if they accept a plea bargain sentence. This helps explain why the majority of Israeli military court cases end in plea bargains.
This is not normal, at least not in any country that has a justice system that believes in the whole innocent-until-proven-guilty thing. It’s normal in an apartheid state, though, like the one the US just spent at least $38 billion on.
^Alt text for screen readers: Israel is holding 4,000 more Palestinians captive than pre-October 2023. Including 580 more hostages in administrative detention. September 2023 column: 5,088 total prisoners, including 1,264 administrative detainees and 3,824 other Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. October 2025 column: 9,106 total prisoners, including 1,844 administrative detainees and 7,262 other Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Post-ceasefire estimate based on reported 1 October 2025 data. Data: Israel Prison Service. Administrative detainees are de facto hostages, held indefinitely without charge or trial. Chart: Stephen Semler.
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This excludes dozens to hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli military black sites.
3,544 as of 1 Oct 2025, minus the estimated 1,700 released via the mid-October 2025 ceasefire deal.
1,844 estimated remaining administrative detainees minus the 1,264 held in administrative detention in September 2023.
Again, minus the dozens to hundreds of Palestinians held at Israeli military black sites.
That said, I don’t have confidence in the Israeli military court system to deliver a fair verdict for a Palestinian in the rare instances where evidence is considered.