Israeli Rights Group: Palestinians Face Systematic Abuse in Israeli Prisons

Soldiers lock a gate from the inside at Sde Teiman detention facility, after Israeli military police arrived at the site as part of an investigation into the suspected abuse of a Palestinian detainee, near Beersheba, in southern Israel, July 29, 2024. (Reuters)
Soldiers lock a gate from the inside at Sde Teiman detention facility, after Israeli military police arrived at the site as part of an investigation into the suspected abuse of a Palestinian detainee, near Beersheba, in southern Israel, July 29, 2024. (Reuters)
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Israeli Rights Group: Palestinians Face Systematic Abuse in Israeli Prisons

Soldiers lock a gate from the inside at Sde Teiman detention facility, after Israeli military police arrived at the site as part of an investigation into the suspected abuse of a Palestinian detainee, near Beersheba, in southern Israel, July 29, 2024. (Reuters)
Soldiers lock a gate from the inside at Sde Teiman detention facility, after Israeli military police arrived at the site as part of an investigation into the suspected abuse of a Palestinian detainee, near Beersheba, in southern Israel, July 29, 2024. (Reuters)

Thousands of Palestinian prisoners are facing systematic abuse and torture in Israeli jails since the war sparked by Hamas's October 7 attack, an Israeli human rights group said Tuesday.

Testimonies from 55 ex-detainees revealed "inhuman conditions", according to the report by B'Tselem, which said more than a dozen prison facilities were being used as "de facto torture camps".

"The testimonies clearly indicated a systematic, institutional policy focused on the continual abuse and torture of all Palestinian prisoners held by Israel," the report said, AFP reported.

Ex-inmates described "frequent acts of severe, arbitrary violence; sexual assault; humiliation and degradation, deliberate starvation; forced unhygienic conditions (and) sleep deprivation", it added.

The Israel Prison Service, the body that runs Israel's prisons, responded that "all prisoners are held legally, and their basic rights are fully provided by skilled and professional prison officers and commanders".

The report's allegations are "baseless", the body said in a statement sent to AFP, but added that all prisoners and detainees have the right to file an official complaint.

The Israeli military said "any abuse of detainees, whether during arrest or interrogation, is illegal and against (Israeli military) guidelines, and is strictly prohibited.

"The army categorically rejects allegations of systematic abuse, including sexual abuse, in its detention facilities."

The B'Tselem dossier comes a week after a United Nations report said Palestinian prisoners were subjected to treatment that may amount to torture.

On Monday, a panel of UN experts also warned of the "escalating use of torture" by Israel against Palestinian prisoners since the war in Gaza began.

Last month, Israel's military said nine soldiers were being held for the suspected abuse of a Palestinian detainee at a facility holding Palestinians arrested from Gaza.

B'Tselem said Israeli authorities declared a "prison state of emergency" on October 18, 11 days after the Hamas attack on Israeli soil that triggered the Israel-Hamas war.

The report said "unrelenting physical and psychological violence, denial of medical treatment, starvation, withholding of water, sleep deprivation and confiscation of all personal belongings" are now applied across all prisons.

The number of Palestinians in Israeli prisons and detention facilities has almost doubled since before the war to 9,623 by early July, nearly half of them detained without trial and without being informed of the allegations against them, B'Tselem said.

"More than a dozen Israeli prison facilities, both military and civilian, were converted into a network of camps dedicated to the abuse of inmates," the report added.

"Such spaces, in which every inmate is intentionally condemned to severe, relentless pain and suffering, operate as de facto torture camps."



Polio Vaccination Starts in North Gaza Despite Obstacles

A medic administers a polio vaccine to a Palestinian girl at the al-Daraj neighborhood clinic in Gaza City on September 10, 2024. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
A medic administers a polio vaccine to a Palestinian girl at the al-Daraj neighborhood clinic in Gaza City on September 10, 2024. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
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Polio Vaccination Starts in North Gaza Despite Obstacles

A medic administers a polio vaccine to a Palestinian girl at the al-Daraj neighborhood clinic in Gaza City on September 10, 2024. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
A medic administers a polio vaccine to a Palestinian girl at the al-Daraj neighborhood clinic in Gaza City on September 10, 2024. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

A campaign to vaccinate a final 200,000 children in north Gaza against polio began on Tuesday although health and aid officials said the operation was complicated by access restrictions, evacuation orders and shortages of fuel.

The campaign in north Gaza, the part of the territory hardest hit by Israel's 11-month military offensive against Hamas militants, follows the vaccination of more than 446,000 Palestinian children in central and south Gaza earlier this month.

Medical staff had started administering vaccines in the north despite a dire need for fuel, among other challenges, said Dr. Moussa Abed of the primary care unit in Gaza's health ministry.
Vaccination centers are in areas that are militarily very active, difficult to reach and isolated if things go wrong, said Sam Rose, a deputy director of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.
"There are some nerves, but we'll have to make it work," he told Reuters by text message.
On Monday, Israel stopped a convoy that included vehicles and fuel for the vaccination campaign as well as a World Health Organization team trying to get to Gaza's Al Shifa hospital and the mission had to be aborted, the WHO's Tarik Jasarevic told reporters in a briefing.
'EXTREMELY DIFFICULT'
Israel also issued an evacuation order in north Gaza, the first in more than two weeks, that included areas that are part of humanitarian pause zones agreed upon for the polio vaccinations, according to a UN update on Monday.
"The centralization of services in the south makes it extremely difficult for us to get fuel, to get access to vaccinations, and to all other logistics," Mahmoud Shalabi of Medical Aid for Palestinians, a UK-based charity, told Reuters via a spokesperson.
"There is still no fuel for the movement of vehicles for vaccination teams in the north."
The campaign to vaccinate some 640,000 children in Gaza began on Sept. 1, following confirmation by the WHO last month that a baby had been partially paralyzed by the type 2 polio virus, the first such case in the territory in 25 years.
The campaign in north Gaza aims to conclude a first vaccination round, with a second set to commence after a month.