Since October 7, an unprecedented campaign has been going on inside Israeli prisons to target prisoners.
After the Israeli occupying authorities announced the “state of emergency” and increased the number of detentions, living space has been reduced in rooms and cells, due to overcrowding. Prior to this, the number of prisoners housed in the same space was based on about 3 metres for every prisoner, while the international standard in European countries ranges from 6 to 12 metres.
Prisoners are compelled to sleep on mats on the floor with a shortage of blankets and clothes.
Prisons have been cut off from the outside world, and family visits have been banned or stopped altogether. Representatives from the International Committee of the Red Cross have been prevented from entering detention centers and meeting with prisoners and detainees in their sections or in interrogation cells.
Visits by lawyers to old detainees have become restricted after being canceled under the pretext of the state of emergency. Detainees are no longer physically brought to court and court sessions are conducted via video conferencing. The maximum legal time period before presenting new detainees before a military judge has been extended and orders for administrative detention are issued and renewed.
Regarding prisoners’ daily living conditions, prison authorities conduct frequent and provocative raids and searches of prisoners’ rooms, sections and cells, using batons and police dogs. This has included the confiscation of electrical appliances, televisions and cooking utensils.
Prison authorities have closed canteens and seized prisoners’ personal belongings such as foodstuffs, cleaning supplies, personal hygiene items and personal items such as books and clothing. This has been accompanied by transfers and isolation targeting leaders and old prisoners. They have also suspended advocacy and representations related to prisoners and detention.
Policy of starvation
The authorities, which oversee the management of prisons and detention centers, have resorted to a policy of starvation against prisoners by significantly reducing the quality, nutritional value and quantity of food provided to them. This includes meals being poorly cooked.
This policy has been decided by direct instruction from the Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir.
Furthermore, the timing of meal servings has been manipulated in a degrading manner — bearing in mind that the food provided by the prison administration is the only food available to the prisoners — leading to anaemia, malnutrition, severe weight loss exceeding 20 kilograms per prisoner.
These procedures also include the control and reduction of water supplies.
Additionally, electricity supplies are manipulated, access to yards restricted, haircuts denied and there is a lack of personal hygiene supplies. Combined with overcrowding, these conditions have exacerbated and spread infectious diseases — especially skin diseases — as seen in the Negev and Megiddo prisons, among others.
Prisoners who are ill or injured are not being transferred for medical examinations at clinics or hospitals, except in very extreme cases, which puts their lives at risk.
This period has been marked by a policy of repression, physical violence, and brutal assaults, resulting in prisoners suffering from fractures, contusions and bruises. Eighteen prisoners were killed within a short period, especially in Megiddo, the Negev and Ofer prisons. Among these violations were the assaults on two martyrs, Thaer Abu Asab in the Negev prison and Abdul Rahman Mari in Megiddo prison.
Additionally, the occupation forces have resorted to policies of humiliation and degradation, including acts of violence and sexual assault, full-body strip searches and degrading prisoners by photographing them naked or semi-naked and publishing videos of them.
Prisoners have been forced, under threat, to perform demeaning actions or use vulgar and humiliating language. They have been shackled and forced to bow their heads towards the ground, walk with bent backs and sleep on the floor.
Legalised racism
The Israeli Minister of Army enacted what is known as the Illegal Combatant Law on October 8 last year, against those arrested from resistance groups in the Gaza Strip. This law grants the Israeli security services (Shabak) and military investigators significant time for harsh interrogations, while denying detainees access to legal counsel for up to 180 consecutive days, as well as prohibiting meetings with Red Cross representatives.
According to prison figures, around 1400 prisoners from Gaza have been classified as illegal combatants. These prisoners are subjected to severe torture and humiliation, violating Geneva Conventions and the principle of a fair trial.
Nearly 300 days into the arrests and enforced disappearances, the occupying authorities still prevent lawyers, the Red Cross, or any neutral entities from knowing the fate or number of detainees from the Gaza Strip.
Arrests increase
Between October 7 and late July, the number of arrests from the West Bank and Jerusalem had reached approximately 9800. Arrests have targeted various factions, age groups, former prisoners and students, including about 350 women and girls, and about 680 minors.
Under a policy of secrecy, the number of administrative detainees has increased, with around 7500 orders and decisions issued and renewed. There are currently about 3400 administrative detainees held in Ofer, Negev, Megiddo, Damon, Nafha, Ramon and other prisons, most of whom were former prisoners.
It is noteworthy that the number of administrative detainees before October was only 1320.
Administrative detention orders have been renewed for several consecutive terms in an arbitrary manner, including (as of late July) for an estimated 23 female prisoners, 40 minors and 17 journalists.
About 300 arrests of Palestinians have been recorded inside the territories occupied in 1948, based on racial grounds related to posting on social media platforms.
Occupation forces have arrested about 91 journalists and 53 are still in detention, including 6 women.
More than 9700 Palestinian prisoners are still detention across 23 prisons and detention centers, including around 80 female prisoners, some of whom are pregnant, such as Jihad Dar Nakhla and Aisha Ghizan.
There are also about 250 minors in prison. There are nearly 1000 cases of illness.
About 580 prisoners are serving life sentences and about 620 have been held for more than 20 continuous years.
These figures do not include detainees from the Gaza Strip. Additionally, the occupation forces have re-arrested 15 children and female prisoners, who were previously released in the prisoner exchange last November. Currently, 13 of them remain in detention, including 5 children and 4 women.
Enforced disappearances
The policy of enforced disappearance has been applied by the occupation against thousands of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, including workers, civilians and resistors. This involves not disclosing their places of detention, names, numbers, conditions of detention, or the charges against them.
Journalists Nidal Al-Wuhidi and Haytham Abdul Wahid, who are from Gaza, been forcibly disappeared since October 7. About 16 journalists and media workers have been detained from the Gaza Strip.
According to unofficial accounts, some detainees held in Ofer, Damon, Anatot and Kili Sheva in the Negev, Nafha and other prisons, are being isolated from other prisoners.
Additionally, in an Israeli military camp near Be’er Sheva, known as Sdeh Teyman, there is a “new Guantanamo”, where detainees are subjected to severe humiliation, the worst forms of torture, beatings and deprivation of food and medical care. At least two Palestinian female detainees have been subjected to rape, while others have been threatened with rape and sexual violence.
There is no precise number for the detainees from Gaza. The occupation army had announced that the number of detainees is 4000, while estimates suggest that it exceeds 5000. Approximately 1000 of them are held in Sdeh Teyman.
In March and June, Haaretz revealed that 37 prisoners had been martyred due to torture, assaults and lack of medical care in the Sdeh Teyman, Anatot and other detention and interrogation centres. Additionally, dozens of detained civilians from northern Gaza were executed, and their bodies found handcuffed and blindfolded.
Martyrs
The policy of torture, assaults, beatings and medical neglect has resulted in the martyrdom of 19 prisoners since October 7. Among them are: Waleed Daqqa, Khaled Al-Shawish, Asef Al-Rifa’i, Thayer Abu Asab, Omar Daraghmeh, Arafat Hamdan, Abdul Rahman Marai, Mohamed Al-Sabbar, Ezzedin Al-Banna, Ahmed Rizq Qdiyh, Abdul Rahman Al-Bahsh, Jumaa Abu Ghanima, Abdul Rahim Amer, Majed Zgoul, Mohamed Abu Sennina, and another from Gaza whose name is unknown.
The number of martyrs among the prisoners has risen to 256, including the administrative detainee Mustafa Abu Arrah from Tubas, who was 63 years old. He was arrested on October 30 and detained in Ramon Prison, where he died due to a “slow killing” resulting from medical neglect on July 26.
Dr Adnan Al-Bursh, head of the orthopedic department at Shifa Hospital in Gaza, was martyred under torture by the occupation forces in Ofer Prison on April 19.
Dr Iyad Al-Rantisi, head of the obstetrics department at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza, was also martyred in November, a week after his arrest, interrogation and torture by the Shabak at the Ashkelon interrogation centre.
The prison administration continues its policy of holding onto the bodies of martyr prisoners, with 29 bodies still being held.
The occupation’s perpetration of torture, inhumane and degrading treatment and other practices that threaten the health, safety and lives of prisoners and detainees, constitute war crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. These crimes are part of the broader context of genocide.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), along with international humanitarian and human rights organisations, must fulfill their responsibilities by pressuring the occupation forces to stop the ongoing crimes against prisoners. The occupation forced must be pressured to adhere to the provisions of international humanitarian law and the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions regarding the treatment and conditions of detention of prisoners and detainees, as well as the legal rights guaranteed by the principle of a fair trial.
All of this highlights the necessity of intensifying solidarity campaigns with the Palestinian people to halt the genocide and support prisoners and detainees through various means including expressions of rejection of the occupation’s crimes.
It is important to engage in solidarity activities on the national and international day announced for August 3, to advocate for the cessation of aggression against the Gaza Strip and to stop targeting prisoners and detainees.
Despite the severity and harshness of the situation, prisoners remain hopeful for their imminent release and liberation from the occupation’s detention centres.
[Hassan Abed Rabbu is a member of the International Academic Campaign to Confront Occupation and Apartheid. Translated from Arabic by Sherihan Abu Ghattas. Edited for clarity.]
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