Palestinian prisoners denounce systematic abuses in Israeli jails

The Guardian interviews corroborate a report by human rights group B’Tselem, which says the prisons should now be called “torture camps”.

According to Guardian interviews with released prisoners, violence, extreme hunger, humiliation and other abuses against Palestinian prisoners have become the norm in the Israeli prison system. The mistreatment is now so systemic that the human rights group B’Tselem says it must be considered a policy of “institutionalised abuse”.

Former detainees described abuses ranging from severe beatings and sexual violence to starvation, denial of medical care and deprivation of basic needs, including water, daylight, electricity and sanitation, including soap and sanitary towels for women.

In a months-long investigation, B’Tselem interviewed 55 former prisoners held in 16 Israeli prisons and detention centers run by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), documenting the scale and nature of the abuses. The highly respected Jerusalem-based organization concluded that Israeli prisons should now be called “torture camps.”

“When we started the project, we expected to find sporadic evidence and outliers here and there, but the picture that emerged is completely different,” said Yuli Novak, the organization’s executive director.

“We were shocked by the magnitude of what we heard. As an Israeli-Palestinian organization, it is uncomfortable to say that Israel runs torture camps. But we understood that this is what we were up against.”

The Israel Prison Service (IPS) said it operates in accordance with the law and under the supervision of the State Comptroller. “We are not aware of the allegations you describe and, to our knowledge, no such event has occurred under the IPS’s responsibility,” it said in a statement. The IPS also said that several petitions regarding detention conditions filed by human rights organizations had been rejected by the Supreme Court.

The Israeli military said it “categorically rejects allegations of systematic abuse of detainees in detention centers” and is acting “in accordance with Israeli and international law.” The allegations of abuse have been thoroughly investigated, a statement said. Prison conditions have improved significantly throughout the war, it added.

There have been numerous reports of arbitrary, cruel and degrading treatment of Palestinian detainees since the Hamas attack on 7 October. This is the only glimpse the outside world has of prison conditions, with Israel denying access to lawyers, family members and Red Cross inspectors.

In late July, several MKs stormed two military bases, backed by a far-right mob, to protest the arrest of nine men accused of brutally raping a female detainee at the Sde Teiman detention center. MK Tally Gotliv told the crowd that Israeli troops deserved full immunity, regardless of their actions.

A former barracks turned processing center for those arrested in Gaza, some have suggested that the suffering at Sde Teiman was a horrific and temporary exception created by the Gaza war.

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