Yossi Schwartz ISL (RCIT section in Israel/Occupied Palestine) 15.10.2026
According to human rights groups, since the beginning of the war, there have been 21 documented incidents in which prisoners have been injured by gunfire in prisons, most of them at close range. Some of them required surgery, and one had a testicular amputation that was “completely shredded”.
Firing rubber bullets at security prisoners in Israel Prison Service facilities caused serious injuries due to, among other things, the removal of a prisoner’s testicle and the operation of another prisoner due to a fracture in the ankle, according to documents and testimonies obtained by Haaretz. Since the beginning of the Iron Sword War, Physicians for Human Rights and the Committee Against Torture have documented 21 incidents of firing rubber bullets at prisoners in the Ofer prisons, Ganot, Ketziot, Gilboa, and Nitzan prisons – most of them from the end of 2025 and the first half of 2026. According to the testimonies, the shooting took place at close range, sometimes in the yard or while waiting for a lawyer – and many times without being preceded by a riot.
The most serious injury was caused to a prisoner who was shot with a rubber bullet in Ketziot in June and was hit in the testicle. According to Soroka Hospital, the prisoner was rushed there “after a riot and a shooting incident of rubber bullets.” The medical document noted that the testicle was “completely shattered” after being shot and surgically amputated. According to the prisoner, a week earlier, guards had beaten him in the testicles.
The events that preceded the injury were described in the prisoner’s testimony to a lawyer who visited him. The prisoner said that when he was brought to Ketziot Prison for the first time, he was thoroughly searched. “They took off all my clothes and made me kneel. While I was kneeling, one of the guards kicked me directly in the testicles and continued to beat me while telling me to get dressed,” the testimony said. He later described that after he was put in his cell, he took off his pants, showed severe swelling and felt sharp pain. He asked to see a doctor, but he was not allowed to be examined at the clinic until two days later. There, he said, he was diagnosed with severe inflammation and blood in his urine and given antibiotics.
According to the testimony, a week later, a force from the Masada unit (the Operational Takeover Unit of the Israel Prison Service) fired “rubber bullets that looked like marbles” at the cell where the prisoner was staying. He said that two prisoners had been shot, and then he had been shot twice— the first bullet was fired through the window of the cell door and hit the testicle that had been beaten a week earlier, and the second bullet hit him behind his right knee. From there, he was dragged about 50 meters to the door of the wing, dragging his leg and bleeding. “When I got to the yard, I had nothing to hold on to and fell to the ground because of the injury. The bleeding was very bad, and from what the prisoners described, I looked like a slaughtered animal,” he said.
The prisoner added that there he was handcuffed and blindfolded. Then a guard called someone to help stop the bleeding, and the prisoner was taken to the clinic – but he lost consciousness before he got there. At the clinic, he noted that he was swollen and called “a dog.” He then lost consciousness again and was eventually taken to Soroka Hospital, where the injured testicle was amputated. According to the medical documents, he left the hospital after a day. In his testimony, he said that even after he left the hospital, he continued to suffer from beatings, and that he was not given walking aids. He also noted that the IPS was trying to evade responsibility, claiming that he had a medical defect before the injury.
Another case was documented in the IPS Medical Center document about a prisoner who was hospitalized at Soroka after being hit by a rubber bullet in Ketziot in July. The document noted that the prisoner underwent surgery to internal fixation of a fracture in his left tibia at the hospital and was transferred to the Medical Center the next day.
In a third case, a medical file of a prisoner from Megiddo Prison shows that he was shot in October last year and suffered a hemorrhage in his right thigh. According to the documentation in his medical file, in February he fell on the same thigh when guards broke into the cell. In March, he was taken to the hospital after swallowing a foreign bone. An examination at the hospital revealed that he had a fracture in his pelvis and that he had to undergo surgery to completely replace the hip joint. The medical documentation provided by the IPS claimed that the fracture was caused by his fall.
Another prisoner who was released in recent months from Ketziot Prison was shot with a rubber bullet in April and operated on only upon his release. In a conversation with Haaretz, he said that the incident began when the wing’s management demanded that prisoners who were in the yard enter a cramped cell with about 40 prisoners. Ten minutes later, a KTAR unit (IPS Initial Response Force) entered the cell. We were many people, on top of each other, in a corner on our knees and with hands on our heads,” he said. I was with my back at the door, and suddenly I heard gunshots and felt pain in my left leg. At the same time, I heard prisoners screaming in pain.”
He estimated that the shooting was at close range, no more than two meters. “Immediately afterward, we were handcuffed from behind and dragged one by one, in a humiliating manner, to the plaza of the wing. There they threw us on our stomachs, even though there were people who were quite woundedממו”, He added. He noted that there were four prisoners with him who had been hit by rubber bullets, and that in the yard they were ordered to lie down with their heads next to the sewer and were stepped on . Afterward, they were given initial medical treatment, but he said the treatment did not help.
The prisoner who was shot said that the next day, the management of the isolation wing transferred everyone who was injured. “What were we punished for? We were injured for no reason, we don’t know why we were shot,” he said. He claimed that he did not receive proper medical treatment for 15 days. “I had a serious inflammation in my leg, and I thought I might lose it from the intensity of the inflammation,” he added. He was eventually given antibiotics at the prison clinic but was not taken to hospital. “I had a tear in the muscle, and as a result a pressure lump on a sensitive nerve. It bothered me a lot when I walked, so I had surgery to remove it. Now I can sit in a chair and walk better,” he said. Like many prisoners, he agreed to speak to Haaretz anonymously, fearing his identity would be revealed and he would be swallowed up.
According to Physicians for Human Rights, in one of the documented cases, a prisoner at Ofer Prison, who was not treated at Scavias, decided not to enter his cell from the yard until he was brought medication – and in response, he was shot and a Taser was used in the head. In another case at Nitzan Prison, according to Physicians for Human Rights, a prisoner was injured in the lower body during a panic attack. These cases also join testimonies published in Haaretz over the weekend, as part of an investigation in which three prisoners testified that they saw the use of rubber bullets in Ofer, Nafha, Megiddo and Ketziot prisons – including shooting at prisoners inside the showers and cells. Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) has received testimony from a Jewish criminal prisoner that rubber bullets were also used against Jewish prisoners last year and this year.
In August, the Committee Against Torture and Physicians for Human Rights contacted Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, IPS Commissioner Kobi Yaakobi, and then-IPS Legal Advisor Eran Nahon (who has since been appointed as the police’s legal advisor). In the letter, the organizations demanded an end to the use of ammunition against prisoners, especially at close ranges and in closed spaces that could make the shooting deadly. The organizations noted that the use of these means in small spaces is particularly dangerous, as their splashes may also harm prisoners who did not participate in the riot, which may justify the lawful use of these munitions.
In the letter, the organizations noted that they were not sure what type of ammunition was used, but according to the prisoners’ descriptions, it appeared to be rubber or plastic bullets. The organizations demanded that the IPS provide information about the types of ammunition and weapons used. The letter noted that the shooting took place in cells, in the isolation wings, in the yard, and even in the waiting room for lawyer visits. According to the organizations, the use of rubber bullets deviates from the IPS’s orders regarding the possession and use of weapons, according to which a prison guard is only allowed to shoot in a few scenarios, such as an escape or escape attempt, a prisoner trying to break through prison doors, or a prisoner who uses violence against a prison guard or another person.
According to human rights organizations, the manner in which rubber bullets are used deviates from IPS orders on the use of weapons, which stipulate that a prison guard is allowed to shoot in only a few scenarios.
The IPS’s legal bureau responded to the organization’s request only two months later, on Sunday. The IPS’s response claimed that decisions to use “less lethal” means were made based on operational need and after assessing the level of threat, the characteristics of the scene, and the danger posed. They noted that the operation of the means is carried out in accordance with instructions detailing the way they are used and the conditions of their use, and that there is a designated procedure by the IPS Operations Division that regulates their use. The response further argued that there is no basis for ordering a sweeping cessation of the means, and that the organizations’ demand for details of the means and ammunition used, their characteristics, and the rules for their operation is unjustified.
The head of the legal department of the Committee Against Torture, Attorney Merav Ben Zeev, told Haaretz that although this is a widespread phenomenon, it is difficult to persuade prisoners to file complaints on the matter. She said the prisoners were “very afraid of filing complaints of prison guard violence” because they fear reprisals and because they claim that the most severe violence against them is directed at them when they are transferred to file a complaint, medical treatment, or legal hearings. She added that the ability to protect complainants and monitor their situation is also limited, since the IPS does not allow frequent visits, and sometimes you must wait two or three months for a meeting.
Muhannad Abu Ghosh, director of the detainee’s department at Physicians for Human Rights, added, “Shooting inmates is not a new phenomenon, but we are witnessing an unprecedented escalation in its use in recent times.” He said, “The testimonies we have collected indicate that shooting has become another means to use violence in prisons. The phenomenon takes a medical toll: severe bleeding, fractures, and injuries to internal organs – and in some cases, the wounded have required hospitalization and surgery. The increasing use of gunfire not only normalizes a new level of violence inside prisons – it increases the risk of even more serious injuries, irreversible damage and even life-threatening.”
The IPS said: “The allegations described are part of the smear campaign of the State of Israel and its legal institutions around the world. The Israel Prison Service operates security detainees in accordance with the law and under constant judicial review. All prisoners in the Israel Prison Service are held in accordance with the provisions of the law and receive the rights and treatment required by law.”
These camps are not Nazi extermination camps because, to date, the guards have murdered “only” more than 100 Palestinian prisoners, but without a doubt these torture camps resemble the Japanese POW camps of World War II.
Employment and living conditions were extremely harsh. It is estimated that one in three Western prisoners in these camps died because of extreme starvation, arduous forced labor (such as the construction of the Burma-Thailand “death railway”), cruel punishment, or diseases for which no cure was given.
Ignoring the Geneva Convention: Japan did not implement the rules of the Geneva Convention regarding the treatment of prisoners. Capture was perceived in Japanese military culture at the time as an occupation and a mark of shame, which directly affected the treatment of soldiers and civilians who fell into their hands.