Police station detention of suspects is rising again, despite state claims of improvement
New figures submitted to Israel’s High Court of Justice indicate that the illegal overnight detention of suspects in police stations is rising again, contradicting government claims that the practice had been sharply reduced. According to the data, the average number of detainees held in police stations climbed from about 217 per month in early 2023 to about 3,230 per month in early 2026, a roughly 15-fold increase.
The Israel Police is allowed to hold detainees in its facilities only briefly and in limited circumstances, because long-term custody is supposed to be handled by the Israel Prison Service. Yet the Civil Rights Association, which filed the petition, says the practice has expanded while stations remain unfit for prolonged detention. In March 2026, 38 detainees were held in holding cells that do not meet minimum legal standards, including lacking running water or access to toilets. That was a sharp jump from most months in 2025, when the number held overnight in such cells ranged from zero to nine.
The association says police have adopted a new workaround by crowding dozens of detainees into officially designated detention cells, even when the law requires far fewer people. In the examples presented to the court, rooms built for a single-digit number of detainees held dozens. The group argues that police stations have effectively become substitute detention facilities, while failing to provide required medical access, proper hygiene, a daily exercise yard, food services, and other basic conditions.
The petition was submitted in September 2023, after police had held hundreds of detainees in stations under unlawful and inhumane conditions. The High Court issued an order nisi and instructed the state to explain what steps it had taken to stop the practice. The association says the state’s update was filed very late, only after costs were imposed, and that it shows deterioration rather than progress. It also says the state did not seriously reconsider arrest policy amid the prison overcrowding crisis, and that more than half of arrests do not lead to indictments. Attorney Hagar Shechter of the association said law enforcement agencies are “systematically” violating the law and denying detainees basic rights, adding that suspects are presumed innocent and are deprived of liberty on suspicion, not as punishment.
