Israel has adopted a policy of arbitrarily arresting Palestinians and abusing and torturing them in a dozen overcrowded civilian and military prisons since the start of the war in Gaza, according to a report by Israel’s B’Tselem human rights organisation.
The report is based on interviews with 55 released detainees who testified that conditions have dramatically deteriorated since the October 7th attack on Israel by Hamas, which started the conflict in Gaza.
Thirty of the people interviewed in the report were from the occupied West Bank, 21 were from Gaza, and four were Palestinian citizens of Israel. Most were released without trial. Among the male and female detainees there were “physicians, academics, lawyers, students, children and political leaders”. Some were detained for “expressing sympathy for Palestinians,” some were “men of fighting age,” and others were suspected of belonging to armed groups, B’Tselem reported, adding; “The only thing they have in common is being Palestinian”.
According to B’Tselem, accusations of abuse include “frequent acts of severe, arbitrary violence; sexual assault humiliation and degradation; deliberate starvation; forced unhygienic conditions; sleep deprivation, prohibition on, and punitive measures for religious worship; confiscation of communal and personal belongings, and denial of adequate medical treatment”.
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Reuters news agency reported that the Israeli military, which runs some detention facilities where Palestinian prisoners have been held, said that it operated according to the rule of law and any specific claims of abuse were investigated.
“The IDF categorically rejects allegations of systematic abuse, including sexual abuse, in its detention facilities,” it said, adding that monitoring mechanisms were in place to ensure facilities were run in accordance with the law.
A spokesperson for the Israel Prison Service said that all prisoners were treated according to the law and all basic rights were fully applied by professionally trained guards.
“We are not aware of the claims you described and as far as we know, no such events have occurred under IPS responsibility,” the spokesperson said, adding that detainees had the right to file complaints that would be fully examined and investigated.
Before the war, Israel had incarcerated 5,192 “security prisoners”, with 1,319 under indefinite administrative detention without trial or access to defence. In early July, there were 9,623 security prisoners, of whom 4.781 were administrative detainees. During the last 10 months, “thousands more Palestinians have been arrested, held for varying periods of time, and released without charges,” B’Tselem said.
It argued that this “organised, declared policy [is being] implemented under the direction of national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir” with the “full support” of the government under prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Mr Ben Gvir began the process of “downgrading conditions” before the war by cancelling early release, limiting family visits, reducing time for showers, and denying prisoners the right to prepare food or buy from canteens, B’Tselem reported.
At least 60 Palestinians, 48 from Gaza, have died in postwar custody.
In “some cases, the circumstances suggest abuse and deliberate withholding of medical attention,” said B’Tselem, which estimates that 800,000 Palestinians from the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza have been incarcerated since Israel’s 1967 occupation. Their trauma and suffering affect “relatives, friends and the entire community,” making Israeli prisons “central to the Palestinian experience”. – Additional reporting: Reuters
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