- Report: Torture of Palestinians in Israeli prisons
Human Rights Watch accuses Israel of systematic torture of Palestinian detainees in its prisons. The Israeli organization B'Tselem has collected testimonies from 55 Palestinian ex-detainees in a report titled "Welcome to Hell," detailing instances of severe mistreatment and violence. According to B'Tselem, over 9,600 Palestinians are currently being held in Israeli prisons, with roughly half of them being held without official charges.
The Israeli military is currently investigating allegations of severe sexual abuse of a Palestinian terrorist by soldiers at the military base of Sde Teiman in southern Israel. The UN Human Rights Office recently reported that at least 53 people have died in Israeli custody.
"The testimonies reveal the results of the hasty conversion of more than a dozen prison facilities - military and civilian - into a network of camps designed for the targeted abuse of inmates," B'Tselem wrote in the report. "Facilities where every inmate is intentionally subjected to severe, relentless pain and suffering effectively function as torture camps."
"The abuse described in the testimonies of dozens of individuals held in various facilities was so systematic that it can only be described as an organized, declared policy of the Israeli prison authority," B'Tselem wrote. This policy, it said, was implemented under the guidance of far-right police minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and with the full support of the Israeli government and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The unprecedented terrorist attack by the Islamic Hamas and other Palestinian groups on Israel on October 7 has deeply traumatized Israeli society and "awakened deep-seated fears and a thirst for revenge among many," B'Tselem wrote. The right-wing religious government has exploited this to "implement their racist ideology by employing the repression mechanisms at their disposal."
B'Tselem is an Israeli human rights group funded by donations that advocates against the occupation of Palestinian territories and for equal rights for Jews and Palestinians.
An Israeli military spokesman said the allegations were being reviewed. A spokeswoman for the Israeli Prison Service said all detainees were being held in accordance with the law and their basic rights were being respected. The allegations by B'Tselem had not been officially conveyed to the service, "and to our knowledge, they lack any basis." She also noted that since the start of the Gaza war ten months ago, the conditions for so-called security detainees had been tightened on Ben-Gvir's orders.
The Palestinian territories serve as the location for numerous individuals who have shared testimonies of severe mistreatment within Israeli prisons. The Israeli Prison Service maintains that detainees in the Palestinian territories are being held in accordance with the law and their basic rights are being respected.
