‘Insulted and Humiliated’: Plight of Palestinian Detainees Inside Israel’s Jails

Occupied Palestine (QNN)- The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) has released a report detailing the “brutal” conditions faced by Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails, where more than 70 prisoners have died in about two years amid reports of torture and medical negligence.

After multiple visits this month, the group said violence against prisoners has intensified with Israeli guards using batons, rubber-coated bullets and stun guns. Prisoners are underfed and deprived of basic hygiene supplies.

Some have worn the same clothes for half a year while others – particularly in the Negev and Ofer prisons – suffer from scabies, which is spreading, the group reported.

“Every time I ask to go to the clinic, I am insulted and humiliated,” the group quoted one prisoner as saying. “I also suffer from severe joint pain, and despite my numerous requests for treatment, they mock me and refuse to provide me with any medication.”

Another prisoner added: “Those who claim to be doctors or nurses carry out humiliating acts against patients. When we ask for treatment, they respond sarcastically: ‘It’s good that he’s breathing.’ Or they say: ‘Drink water with soap.’”

Another prisoner noted: “The amount of food provided isn’t enough to feed a little child. Often, we find bird droppings in the food or footprints of the jailers on vegetables, which are usually spoiled.
Yet, we’re forced to eat it because there’s no alternative.”

The female prisoners held in Damon Prison are subjected to harsh and degrading conditions, including high humidity and widespread insect infestations, deliberate starvation through the provision of spoiled vegetables, physical abuse, strip searches, and violent crackdowns and ongoing denial of access to essential feminine hygiene products by the Israeli prison administration.

Silent Death

According to the Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS), at least 77 known detainees have died in Israeli prisons since the start of the Israeli genocide in Gaza. Among them are at least 46 detainees from Gaza, the highest number in history.

The group said the identities of many martyrs among Gaza’s detainees remain undisclosed, as the Israeli occupation continues to conceal them, making this the “bloodiest stage in the history of the prisoner movement.” Of those, Israel continues to withhold the bodies of 81 detainees, including those who died since the start of the Israeli assault.

Additionally, dozens of detainees from Gaza remain forcibly disappeared, with no confirmed information on their fate.

Israeli occupation authorities have been accused of torturing Palestinian detainees. This includes being handcuffed and shackled 24 hours a day, seven days a week – even while sleeping, eating, and using the restroom.

Testimonies also describe regular beatings by guards, extreme overcrowding, humiliation, and inadequate hygiene.

An Israeli reserve soldier exposed lately shocking abuses at Israel’s infamous Sde Teiman military base, describing it as a “sadistic torture site” where dozens of Palestinian detainees from Gaza died under brutal conditions.

The soldier described Sde Teiman as a place where “people enter alive and leave in body bags.” He said the death of detainees was no longer surprising. “The real surprise,” he added, “is if someone survives.”

He stated that Israeli occupation authorities oversee systematic abuse.

According to his account, Palestinian detainees suffered starvation, untreated war wounds, and denial of basic hygiene needs. “Some urinated and defecated on themselves because they weren’t allowed to use the bathroom,” he said.

In August 2024, the Israeli rights group B’Tselem accused Israeli occupation authorities of systematically abusing Palestinians in “torture camps”, subjecting them to severe violence and sexual assault.

Its report, titled “Welcome to Hell”, is based on 55 testimonies from former detainees from the Gaza Strip, the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem, and citizens of Israel. The overwhelming majority of these detainees were held without trial.

According to the Palestine Center for Prisoners Studies, more than half of the Palestinian prisoners who have died since October 2023, were killed primarily as a result of torture and abuse.

Due to the sharp rise in arrests, particularly among Gazans, Israel has opened new detention and interrogation centers operated directly by its military. According to the center, these facilities have become sites of “systematic torture and mistreatment, in clear violation of international law and human rights.”

The center also revealed that Israel has officially acknowledged the deaths of 37 detainees in Sde Teiman detention center since October 2023, though this number is likely only a fraction of the true toll.
Many prisoners from Gaza have been subjected to forced disappearance and held incommunicado under inhumane conditions, creating an environment where extrajudicial killings can occur without oversight or accountability.

In addition to torture, the center documented 29 deaths resulting from medical negligence. Israel is reported to routinely deny prisoners access to basic medical care, holding them in unsanitary, disease-ridden conditions and delaying or outright refusing necessary treatment for extended periods. In many cases, prisoners are only transferred to hospitals when they are on the brink of death.