Palestinians recount lethal abuse in Israeli prisons after Oct. 7

Rights teams say circumstances in Israel’s jam-packed prisons have deteriorated dangerously because the Hamas assaults on Israel. Former Palestinian prisoners described routine beatings, usually carried out on complete cells or sections, normally with batons and typically with canines. They mentioned they have been denied adequate meals and medical care and have been subjected to psychological in addition to bodily abuse.

The Submit spoke to 11 former prisoners and half a dozen attorneys, examined court docket information and reviewed post-mortem studies, revealing rampant, typically lethal violence and deprivation by Israeli jail authorities.

Whereas worldwide consideration and condemnation has centered on the plight of Gazan detainees — particularly on the infamous Sde Teiman navy website — rights advocates say there’s a deeper, systemic disaster in Israel’s penal system.

“Violence is pervasive,” mentioned Jessica Montell, govt director of the Israeli rights group HaMoked, which has labored for years with Palestinian inmates. “It’s very overcrowded. Each prisoner that we’ve met with has misplaced 30 kilos.”

Tal Steiner, govt director of the Public Committee Towards Torture in Israel, attributes the abuses, partially, to an environment of revenge in Israel following Hamas’s Oct. 7 assault. “It’s a mix of particular person sentiments which can be very damaging and violent, of backing of the policymakers and of lack of accountability,” she mentioned.

Requested in regards to the prisoners who’ve died behind bars since Oct. 7, as nicely the opposite allegations detailed on this story, Israel’s jail service mentioned in an announcement: “We aren’t conscious of the claims you described, and so far as we all know, no such occasions have occurred. Nonetheless, prisoners and detainees have the precise to file a criticism that can be totally examined and addressed by official authorities.”

“All prisoners are detained in keeping with the legislation,” the assertion continued. “All fundamental rights required are totally utilized by professionally skilled jail guards.”

The Worldwide Legal Court docket is contemplating arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Protection Minister Yoav Gallant over Israel’s conduct in Gaza. Circumstances within the nation’s jails might result in extra worldwide authorized motion, Israeli intelligence chief Ronen Bar warned in a letter to jail authorities on June 26.

“Israel is having problem repelling claims towards it, no less than a few of that are nicely based,” he wrote in a letter considered by The Submit and first revealed by Ynet.

The jail system, constructed for 14,500 inmates, was housing 21,000, the letter mentioned, not together with an estimated 2,500 detainees from Gaza, most held in navy amenities.

“The incarceration disaster creates threats to Israel’s nationwide safety, its international relations and its potential to appreciate the struggle objectives it set for itself,” Bar concluded.

Israel’s inner intelligence company, the Shin Guess, didn’t reply to requests for touch upon Bar’s letter.

However Itamar Ben Gvir, Israel’s far-right nationwide safety minister who oversees the jail system, has been unapologetic about his “struggle” on Palestinian detainees. In a put up on X this month responding to Bar, he boasted that he had “dramatically lowered” bathe time and launched a “minimal menu.”

The best resolution to jail overcrowding, he mentioned, can be capital punishment.

Ben Gvir’s workplace didn’t reply to a request for remark.

For Abdulrahman Bahash, 23, his jail keep grew to become a demise sentence.

His household mentioned he was a member of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades — listed as a terrorist group by Israel and the United States — and was arrested in reference to armed clashes with Israeli forces within the West Financial institution metropolis of Nablus.

Israel’s jail service mentioned it couldn’t element what, if any, prices have been introduced towards Bahash or the opposite prisoners within the story.

Two of Bahash’s fellow inmates at Megiddo Jail, a facility in northern Israel the place no less than three prisoners have died since October, linked his killing to a very extreme beating by guards on their block in December. Each spoke on the situation of anonymity for concern of reprisals.

Officers raided all cells on the wing and handcuffed the inmates earlier than beating them, in keeping with a 28-year-old prisoner who was detained in the identical part. He mentioned comparable beatings occurred twice per week whereas he was incarcerated.

Guards went at them “in a loopy manner,” the prisoner mentioned. “They used their batons, they kicked us … throughout our our bodies.”

After the beating, he mentioned, Bahash and different members of his cell have been taken to an space of isolation rooms nicknamed “Tora Bora,” after al-Qaeda’s Afghan cave community.

“The noise of the screams was all around the part,” he mentioned. Bahash returned with deep bruises, complaining his ribs may be damaged. When he sought medical help, his prisonmate mentioned, he was despatched again with Acemol, a easy ache killer.

“Ultimately, he was incapable of standing on his toes,” he mentioned. “We helped him stroll round as if he was a toddler.”

Bahash died about three weeks later, on Jan. 1.

A autopsy “revealed indicators of traumatic harm to the precise chest and left stomach, inflicting a number of rib fractures and spleen harm, probably the results of assault,” learn a report from Daniel Solomon, a health care provider with PHRI who was given permission by jail authorities to take a seat in on the post-mortem.

Septic shock and respiratory failure following the accidents have been listed as potential causes of demise. The official post-mortem outcomes have been withheld from the household, as has Bahash’s physique.

Israel’s Jail Service didn’t reply to questions on why his physique has not been returned to his family members.

Saeb Erekat, his brother-in-law, mentioned the younger man was in peak bodily form earlier than jail. He described Megiddo as a “graveyard.”

Bahash’s post-mortem was one in all 5 that docs from PHRI have been capable of attend on behalf of prisoners’ households after making use of for permission from the courts.

Abdul Rahman al-Maari, 33, died in Megiddo on Nov. 13. A carpenter and father of 4, Maari had been in jail since February 2023, in keeping with his brother Ibrahim, who mentioned he was arrested at a brief checkpoint and accused of being affiliated with Hamas and possessing a firearm.

Kin misplaced contact with him after Oct. 7, when household visits have been shut down. They’re nonetheless making an attempt to piece collectively the small print of his demise.

A report by PHRI physician Danny Rosin from his post-mortem discovered that “Bruises have been seen over the left chest, with damaged ribs and chest bone beneath. … Exterior bruises have been additionally seen on the again, buttocks, left arm and thigh, and proper aspect of the top and neck.”

Khairy Hamad, 32, a prisoner in the identical part, mentioned Maari was kicked down a flight of about 15 steel stairs whereas handcuffed — a punishment for talking again to guards throughout a room search as inmates have been stripped and crushed.

Hamad mentioned he and his cellmates had been ordered to the bottom flooring and Maari landed about 5 yards away from him. He was aware, he mentioned, however bleeding from the top. Maari, too, was moved to isolation in Tora Bora. From the cell subsequent door, 53-year-old lawyer Sariy Khourieh listened to him wail in ache for hours.

“He was screaming all day and evening,” Khourieh mentioned. “I want a health care provider,” he remembers him shouting, many times.

At 4 a.m., he lastly fell silent.

Within the morning, Khourieh listened because the guards found the lifeless physique and referred to as a health care provider. He heard them attempt to revive Maari with a defibrillator, then noticed him taken out in a physique bag.

“In a contemporary society, issues like this shouldn’t occur,” his brother mentioned.

Stories of medical help being denied are pervasive within the testimonies of former prisoners. The demise of Muhammed al-Sabbar, 21, on Feb. 28 might have been averted if his continual situation had been handled correctly, in keeping with Rosin from PHRI, who sat in on his post-mortem.

Sabbar’s household mentioned he was arrested for incitement in reference to posts he made on-line. He had suffered since childhood from Hirschsprung’s illness, a situation that causes extreme, painful bowel blockages. He wanted a particular eating regimen and medicine.

Sabbar’s abdomen started to swell in October after he was denied his medicine, mentioned Atef Awawda, 54, one in all his cellmates. A jail physician had given him a single injection earlier that month, Awawda recalled, however informed Sabbar to not inform anybody. “This was the final time we acquired medication,” he mentioned.

“Mohammed’s demise might have been averted with stricter adherence to his medical wants,” Rosin’s letter to his household mentioned, describing his colon as dilated and crammed with a considerable amount of fecal matter.

By the point he was rushed to an emergency room, “his situation was already such that the prospect of saving him was slim,” the report concluded.

A file 9,700 Palestinian safety prisoners have been being held in Israeli prisons in Might, in keeping with Addameer, a Palestinian prisoner rights group. Some 3,380 have been administrative detainees, the group mentioned, held with out cost or trial. The numbers don’t embrace prisoners from Gaza; Israeli authorities won’t reveal precisely what number of have been detained or the place they’re held.

Cells made for six typically held double that quantity, former inmates mentioned, with mattresses positioned on the ground.

Some mentioned coverings have been faraway from cell home windows within the winter to show them to the chilly. Others mentioned the Israeli nationwide anthem was performed incessantly at excessive volumes; lights have been left on at evening to disturb their sleep.

One Palestinian prisoner was crushed in entrance of a choose as he joined a listening to by way of video hyperlink in November, in keeping with his lawyer and court docket information reviewed by The Submit.

“We are able to hear now within the background cries of individuals being crushed,” the court docket minutes learn. The shouts stopped when the choose intervened.

“My nostril is damaged,” mentioned the defendant, whose identify was redacted in court docket information. “I ask that the listening to not finish earlier than they promise to not hit me.”

Violence and medical negligence have been accompanied by the withholding of meals, former prisoners recounted. Every mentioned they’d misplaced vital weight in jail, shedding between 30 and 50 kilos.

Journalist Moath Amarneh, 37, imprisoned for six months in Megiddo after filming demonstrations within the West Financial institution, mentioned his six-person cell held as much as 15 folks throughout his keep.

The inmates would share a plate of greens and yogurt for breakfast. For lunch, every prisoner acquired half a cup of rice, and the cell — nonetheless many males have been in it — would divvy up a plate of sliced tomatoes or cabbage. On good days, there may be sausage or beans. Dinner was an egg and a few greens, he mentioned.

“It’s barely sufficient to outlive,” mentioned lawyer Aya al-Haj Odeh, who mentioned some purchasers reported being given as little as three slices of bread a day or a couple of spoonfuls of rice and having restricted entry to ingesting water.

The Affiliation for Civil Rights in Israel petitioned the Supreme Court docket in April over what it referred to as it a “coverage of hunger.” Ben Gvir wrote to the group taking credit score for the coverage, saying he was working to “worsen the circumstances” of safety prisoners to “create deterrence,” the ACRI mentioned.

Muazzaz Obayat, 37, might barely stroll when he left Ktzi’ot, in southern Israel, final week. He was arrested within the aftermath of Oct. 7 on suspicion of ties to Hamas, however no prices have been ever introduced towards him.

His curly black hair and beard have been unkempt; his cheekbones jutted out, and his eyes have been sunken.

At a clinic within the West Financial institution city of Beit Jala the place he was receiving medical care, he mentioned he wasn’t positive how previous he was or the ages of his 5 kids.

“I do know nothing however imprisonment,” he mentioned.

As soon as an novice bodybuilder, he mentioned he’d misplaced greater than 100 kilos in 9 months.

He whispered as he described a guard sexually assaulting him with a brush. His docs mentioned he was affected by post-traumatic stress and malnutrition.

“It’s Guantánamo,” he mentioned.

Hajar Harb in London and Lior Soroka in Tel Aviv contributed.