At least 110 Palestinian detainees have died in Israeli prisons since far-right minister Itamar Ben-Gvir assumed control of the prison system, marking an unprecedented spike in custodial deaths and triggering renewed global alarm over systematic torture, starvation, and the collapse of legal oversight behind prison walls.

According to reports by Israeli media outlet Walla, the number of Palestinian prisoners who died between 23 January and 25 June — a period that coincides with Ben-Gvir’s authority over the Israel Prison Service — exceeds annual death figures recorded in previous decades. Rights groups and legal experts say the figures expose what they describe as the darkest chapter in the history of Israeli detention practices.

Testimonies from recently released Palestinian detainees reveal a consistent pattern of abuse, including severe beatings, electric shock, prolonged stress positions, sleep deprivation, denial of food and water, and refusal of urgent medical care. Many detainees reportedly collapsed in their cells and were only transferred to hospitals when their condition became irreversible.

Former prisoners describe conditions so extreme that they “amount to slow execution,” with cells overcrowded, unventilated, and stripped of basic hygiene. Human rights monitors say these conditions intensified dramatically after 7 October, with policies amounting to collective punishment imposed on Palestinian captives.

Since assuming office, Ben-Gvir has openly promoted a hard-line approach toward Palestinian prisoners, rolling back basic privileges and introducing new restrictions on food, water, electricity and family contact. Israeli sources report that he has renewed efforts to advance a death penalty law and has publicly boasted of dismantling what he mockingly called “summer camps” inside prisons.

Critics argue these measures amount to state-sanctioned cruelty and have institutionalized torture as official policy.

Israeli authorities currently detain more than 10,000 Palestinian prisoners, many of them under so-called administrative detention, without charge or trial. Since 7 October, Israeli forces have abducted at least 1,700 Palestinians from Gaza and seized hundreds more from the West Bank and other areas, often holding them in undisclosed locations.

While rights groups had earlier recorded 46 deaths in custody, the newly reported figure of 110 deaths suggests the real toll has been systematically concealed and is far higher than previously acknowledged.

Since October, the Israeli authorities have completely barred the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) from visiting Palestinian detainees, ending one of the last remaining channels of external monitoring.

Legal experts warn that the ban has created a dangerous legal vacuum, allowing torture, starvation and abuse to occur without witnesses or accountability — in direct violation of international humanitarian law.

Human rights organizations have issued urgent appeals for the deployment of independent international inspection teams to Israeli prisons, demanding full access to detention centers, medical records and prisoner testimonies.

They stress that the sharp rise in deaths is not accidental but the direct result of deliberate policy choices that violate the Geneva Conventions and constitute grave breaches of international law.

As Palestinian families continue to wait for news of their loved ones, the soaring death toll inside Israeli prisons stands as a stark symbol of a detention system that, according to rights groups, has been transformed into a machinery of torture and silent execution. (ILKHA)