Yossi Schwartz ISL (RCIT section in Israel/Occupied Palestine) 11.10.2026
This article is based on the information provided in the liberal Zionist Newspaper “Haaretz” that has enough courage to print it. Yet it was irresponsible to print the names and pictures of the former detainees, as the Zionist army is at best likely to rearrest them.
The Israeli public knows how Palestinians in Israeli Jails are treated, as this information is not hidden. Yet they do not protest and are silent partners in this crime.
Since October 7 three years ago, Israel’s security prisons have functioned as torture camps. Severe violence, scabies, and cruel living conditions are part of the daily routine of thousands of prisoners. This is a declared policy at the center of Itamar Ben-Gvir’s election campaign. To date, investigative reports from leading media outlets, human rights organizations, and petitions to the High Court of Justice have revealed the facts. The Israeli public, which commemorates Jewish Holocaust Day every year, remains indifferent because the Palestinians are not Jewish and do not belong to the chosen people.
The High Court justices also struggled to get excited. They rejected the petition to disqualify Ben-Gvir. After many postponements, the Supreme Court justices ruled against two aspects of this policy. In September 2025, the justices ordered that prisoners be properly fed, and in June of this year, they ordered the Israel Prison Service to resume Red Cross visits to prisons. In both cases, the verdicts do not appear to have changed anything in the proceedings. Apart from small changes to the menu, the policy of deliberate starvation continues, and Red Cross representatives have not yet been granted access to prisons. In both cases, contempt-of-court petitions have been filed and ignored. A petition regarding the treatment of Scavias has been rejected. Violence and abuse in all areas of prisoners’ lives continue unhindered. As the former President of the Supreme Court Aharon Barak said at a conference of jurists in Eilat, the role of the Supreme Court is to provide a legal umbrella for what the world calls Israel’s war crimes
In September, there were 9,329 security prisoners imprisoned in Israel, but only 16% of them were charged and convicted in court. The rest are in jail without a charge (34%) and “unlawful combatants” – a status that is not recognized by international law. Gazans, Syrians, and Lebanese to be imprisoned without the rights of prisoners of war or criminal detainees. According to data provided by the Israel Prison Service last year, since the beginning of the war, the IPS has released hundreds of prisoners every month, regardless of the hostage deals. In 2024, for example, the IPS released about 5,000 prisoners, even though there was no prisoner deal that year. In most cases, prisoners are released because their detention, administrative or regular, ended without prosecution or conviction. The release of hundreds of security prisoners every month contradicts Ben-Gvir’s lie that they are terrorists or dangerous prisoners.
יFive prisoners who were released in the past year and a half decided to tell Haaretz about what was happening behind bars in the IPS torture camps. Other released prisoners, especially those who were in administrative detention, refused to be interviewed for fear of being followed up. All five lost between 15% and 50% of their body weight due to hunger. All of them were beaten to the point of breaking bones; all of them said that the scabies were killing prisoners; they all described cruel collective punishment, daily humiliation, and horror. The IPS unit is leading to the most severe violence.
The interviewees were released between April 2025 and July 2026 from Megiddo, Nafa, Ketziot, Ofer, and Damon prisons, where Palestinian prisoners are held. They all live in the West Bank. Their transfer to Israeli prisons is contrary to the international laws of war. The situation of the Gazan detainees is even worse. They all suffered from hunger and constant violence.
A a journalist, 59 years old, told: “I went to prison weighing 120 kilograms with two ailments — diabetes and high blood pressure.” He was held in administrative detention for a year. I got out of prison after losing 60 kilograms, suffering from 10 diseases. I have severe headaches that led to loss of consciousness, severe pain in my ears, eye problems, pain in the stomach and colon, rapid heartbeat, acute urinary tract infection, tearing pain in the hand and back, and tendinitis,” he said a few days after his release from detention.
S is a well-known journalist from Jenin who has worked with international media over the years. He was arrested at the end of April 2025 and held in Ketziot and Megiddo prisons. In the first days of his arrest, the military claimed that he was suspected of transferring funds to Islamic Jihad, but he vehemently denies this. He was released a year later without being charged. The use of administrative detention is not unusual for journalists arrested during the war. According to data from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), since the beginning of the war, 110 Palestinian journalists have been arrested, 73 of them from the West Bank. Of those arrested in the West Bank, 46 have been held in administrative detention. Many Gazan journalists shot dead by Israeli snipers
For the first few months, S was held in Ketziot. “There, they would tie our hands behind our backs and also our legs, lay us down on the floor, step on us, and beat us. I was badly injured in my hands and legs by beatings by guards. The raids happened at their convenience. Sometimes every day, sometimes once a week. In December, a delegation from the Supreme Court president arrived in Ketziot. We explained the situation, and they said they would improve it. A week later, they transferred us from Ketziot to Megiddo. But the situation didn’t improve; instead, it got worse.
“In Megiddo, our heads and beards were shaved. Ten people were in each room: six sleeping on beds and four on the floor. They gave us one pair of underwear, so we would wash it and be left without underwear. When they wanted to punish a prisoner, they would force him to undress completely, whether he was young or old, and beat him with a thick tube all over his body. This happened if a prisoner was delayed while showering or if he talked while walking in the yard with a prisoner from another room.
“On the third day of Ramadan, guards broke into our wing with weapons in their hands and fired rubber bullets at the prisoners while they were naked in the showers. It happened for no reason, in order to threaten us, and to send a message that if we pray in groups or out loud, we will be punished.
H, a mother of five from Dahariya, was held for five and a half months in Damoon Prison after twice trying to enter Israel without a permit to find work. The plea bargain, in which she was convicted on no security charges, stated that Allawi was the only breadwinner in her family and had a clean record. She told the judge that she had a heart condition and was not receiving the medication she needed in prison. She was originally sentenced to four months in prison and fined. Since she could not pay the fine, she was imprisoned for another month and a half. When she was released last July, she lost 36 kilograms.
“March was one of the most difficult raids,” she says of Damoon Prison, the only one where Palestinian women prisoners are held. They threw three tear gas canisters into the yard, let the smoke rise, and shouted at us to lie on our stomachs. They came into our room, stepped on our legs, beat us, grabbed our hands, and tied them with zip ties, with the intention that it would hurt. They dragged us into the yard and blindfolded us with tape very tightly so that they would press on us. At first, they tried to put a blindfold on me, but I didn’t mind. In the end, another guard came, gave me two flip-flops with all her might, pulled my hair hard, and then put the cover on me. She dragged me barefoot. If they saw someone trying to take flip-flops, they hit her with their legs. Some girls were hit on the head. I was beaten, and my teeth were broken. A guard trampled my toes until my toenails were torn off.
H, who was imprisoned after trying to enter Israel without a permit to find work, tells:
“When we were lying down, I was terrified, and I recited the shahada (an Islamic declaration of faith that is said before death), and then one of the guards told me, ‘Pray for your life. ‘ There was a prisoner who was so scared that she recited verses from the Koran and had a rifle attached to her head. We were lying on the ground for about an hour. They filmed us and swore at us, and then while we were all lying there, they threw another stun grenade at our legs. The noise terrified me. Until now, I’m scared every night. Even now, if I hear a voice in the house, even a key in the door, it doesn’t get out of my head. How they dragged us and what they did to us.
“I was beaten twice more in prison. One time they beat me on the head and sprayed me with tear gas, and the second time they beat me in the stomach. I was bleeding for 15 days. I had to have surgery because I had damage to my uterus.
In all 170 days in prison, breakfast was a spoonful of labneh with a little jam on top. We were given six slices of bread for the whole day: sometimes hard, sometimes soaked in water, sometimes soft. At noon, we usually got two tablespoons of lentils, two tablespoons of chickpeas, and two tablespoons of rice, sometimes cooked, sometimes not. On Saturday and Tuesday, we got an inedible chicken schnitzel, sometimes raw, with a bad smell. Two days a week we got a small spoonful of tuna. We also got cucumber and tomato, but they were completely spoiled. For dinner, we got a tablespoon of tahini, a tablespoon of chickpeas, and a nice, spoiled or frozen egg. We threw away the eggs, but prisoners ate them because they were so hungry.
“One guard was particularly nasty. In raids, she would grope the girls and search them naked. The day I went home, she told me to take off all my clothes. She also wanted me to bend down and spread my legs. I didn’t agree, so she started yelling at me and shocking me with the Taser.”
The scabies spread rapidly in the wing. It started with another prisoner and me. At the clinic, they told us it came from the laundry. We only had two pieces of clothing, and they didn’t take us out to take a shower, so of course we would have scabies. At one point, for eight days, we weren’t allowed to shower or go out to the yard for no reason. I was very weak, so three weeks before I was discharged, I was transferred to a cell with pregnant women.
S, a 45-year-old journalist, tells:
The first time Samer Huira saw prisoners with scabies in prison, he collapsed. “Do you know what a walking skeleton is? All the legs are blood; the chest is blood. It’s all blisters and wounds. Some walk with crutches, some with a walker, others lean on each other. We called them zombies. Your brain can’t grasp it: young, old, extremely thin. There is no flesh on their hands; you only see a beard and eyes.
In an interview last July at the Hayat radio station where he works, Havera illustrated the slow gait of the stricken prisoners, their attempt to keep their hands away from their bodies so as not to touch the wounds. For two and a half hours, he described the nine-month journey of terror between the Huwara military detention camp and the Megiddo and Nafha prisons, where he was held in administrative detention. To this day, he does not know why he was arrested, because no indictment is filed in administrative detention.
H was released from prison in January 2026 after losing 22 kilograms. His 9-year-old son did not recognize him. A short video from the moment of his release, in which he tearfully recounted his experiences in prison, was posted on the popular Telegram channel “Abu Ali Express” and received thousands of likes. Channel 7 published the video under a headline calling him a “terrorist.”
“The day we arrived at Nafha was the worst day of my life. On the way, your legs are handcuffed, and your eyes are covered. As you drive, you get kaffas, kicks, and pushes. You are dragged out of the handcuffs like a sheep, and your hands start bleeding. At the entrance to Nafha, you have to take off all your clothes. You bend down, check that you’re not hiding anything, and then you cuff your hands behind your back. From there, they took us one by one to a metal cage. There was an alarm because of the bomb from Iran, and the guards left us. You sit on your legs, and the handcuffs are stretched, blood flow is cut off, and your hands fall asleep; you stop feeling them. There is no food. After five or six hours in the cage, they made us stand in a long line, one by one. Each with his head on the other’s back, and we were not allowed to raise our heads. Then they brought a rope and passed it between us. We were like dominoes. An officer came and kicked the back of the last prisoner in the line, and we all got stuck in each other. That’s how we were led, 30 people. We all had to turn around when we weren’t allowed to raise our heads— we got hit in the head from the wall, from the door. If the person behind you steps on the chain, you almost fall, and they laugh. Whoever raises his head gets a kappa, a kick. It was a black day.
Rabia Abu Naim, from Al Mughayir village in the Ramallah area, works with Israelis to protect herders from settler violence. In January 2025, soldiers assaulted him and his brother, breaking his arm. One of them even tried to take off his pants and beat him in a way that hurt his genitals. He says that when he asked to complain to the MPIU, they laughed at him.
Over the past three years, outposts have surrounded his village, making it the focus of military raids. He was arrested a year ago, the night before the olive harvest began, as activists prepared to help farmers. In an appeal against his arrest, a military judge confirmed his lawyer’s claim that he was taking part in non-violent activities together with Israelis. Despite this, he remained detained for nine months in the Ofer military camp and Ofer prison.
R, who struggled against the growing violence of settlers around his village. He said that for 20 days he received only one vegetable and bread for each meal
“I was detained in the Ofer refugee camp for 70 days. There was a food shortage, and for 20 days we got only labneh, one vegetable, and four slices of bread at each meal. Everyone had stomach problems because of it. They didn’t give us toothbrushes; they gave us a little dishwashing liquid to shower.
“The guards would raid the rooms every day, beat us, stun us with dogs, and electrocute us with a Taser attached to their chests. When you are electrocuted, your body freezes. They would beat us with our private parts, ribs, and chest. Once they entered the room before sunrise. Suddenly, the door opened, and a stun grenade was thrown inside. They said, ‘Everybody on your stomach, everybody surrenders.’ They handcuffed us and took us out one by one. They made me electric while I was on my stomach, and then they made me stand up, grabbed the handcuffs and twisted my hands.
“During the 70 days in the camp, I lost 15 kilograms. When I moved to Ofer Prison, the food situation improved. The amount was still very small, but there was more variety. Every morning we received a spoonful of labneh and three slices of bread. On Saturday afternoon, we had a small schnitzel and three potatoes for ten people; each received 7 to 10 olives and three slices of bread. On Saturday night, we had a hard-boiled egg, three slices of bread, two tablespoons of tuna, two or three tablespoons of tahini, and two tomatoes for 10 people, divided equally. On Sunday afternoon, they had rice the size of a small coffee cup, a cup of hummus, a cup of lentils, and an egg. In the evening, they would bring the same amount of rice, a cup of white beans, and about a cup of salad. Most of the time, the rice was undercooked, dry, or unprepared, and the vegetables were rotten. The eggs were blue and smelled sour, but we would eat them anyway.
“In the evening, we would also get a small glass with peanut butter mixed with water. That’s the only thing I’d look forward to all day. To celebrate birthdays and stuff, we’d make layers of bread and peanut butter.
When R., a 43-year-old resident of the West Bank, was released from Ketziot Prison in April 2025, doctors forbade him from hugging the children. “I have five children,” he says. “I wasn’t allowed to go near them for two weeks because of the scabies I got at the end of my sentence. It’s itchy all night, and the Zionist torture camps.
In Israel, where telling lies is the norm, all those responsible for this inhuman treatment say we do not do any wrong:
The Israel Prison Service said: “The claims described are untrue, have no factual basis, and are part of the smear campaign of the State of Israel and its legal institutions around the world. The Israel Prison Service operates in accordance with the law and under constant judicial review. All inmates in the Israel Prison Service are held in accordance with the provisions of the law and receive the rights and treatment required by law.”
The Zionist army Spokesperson said: “Since the outbreak of the war, many resources have been invested in the construction of detention infrastructure. The IDF’s detention facilities provide detainees with conditions in accordance with the law and international law, including sleep, food, hygiene, and medicine. The conditions of incarceration and treatment are subject to internal control and supervision mechanisms and external and judicial review.
“The Zionist Army Spokesperson rejects the accusations of systematic abuse of detainees. Abuse of detainees is contrary to the law and the Zionist army orders and is therefore strictly prohibited. The army has various oversight mechanisms to ensure that detention facilities under its responsibility operate in accordance with the instructions and the law, including continuous CCTV supervision, periodic discussions at the General Staff, supervision by facility commanders, and more.
“The use of restraint measures against detainees in order to maintain the security of the facility is done only in exceptional incidents that justify it, subject to Israeli law, the provisions of international law, and IDF orders. The IDF uses administrative detention tools only when a professional has examined the case and confirmed that it is not possible to file an indictment based on the evidence available. The orders are subject to judicial review by the court and are brought for periodic re-examination.”
The Shin Bet refused to answer why S, A, and H were held in administrative detention.
This kind of state formed on Palestinian stolen land has no moral or legal basis for its existence, and its end is possibly not far away. The dialectical laws of history negate its existence, and a red democratic state from the river to the sea will replace the Zionist apartheid from the river to the sea. When some Israelis tell the truth, it becomes a scandal, and the mass media ask who the traitor is for revealing such a secret, as we saw in the Yamen field case.