Radio Cadena Agramonte emisiora de Camagüey
Tel Aviv, Jan 22. - Palestinian prisoners incarcerated in Israeli prisons face conditions unfit for human beings and are subjected to torture methods, such as systematic violence, food deprivation, and medical neglect, a report revealed today.
A document prepared by the Public Defender's Office, cited this Thursday by the newspaper The Times of Israel, confirms that so-called security detainees suffered severe and systematic violence at the hands of prison guards.
They also faced unsanitary conditions that caused and exacerbated outbreaks of disease in the penitentiary centers, the document stated.
According to the newspaper, the report was prepared by Public Defender's Office inspectors who visited four such facilities in 2024 and documented seeing skeletal prisoners and witnessing physical evidence of beatings and medical neglect on the bodies of the prisoners they interviewed.
The officials described the conditions in one prison as inadequate for holding human beings and warned of unnecessary and unjustified violence against the inmates.
They highlighted that these abuses are carried out regularly and on numerous occasions.
As an example, they cited three visits to Ketziot prison, during which inmates reported numerous abuses.
"They showed us their wrists with red welts, swelling, and scabs," reads the report, after clarifying that the beatings are carried out in places where there is no surveillance camera coverage.
They also reported that they were restrained with handcuffs or bindings so tight that they caused physical injuries and that they had to walk in unnatural positions to mitigate the pain.
"The prisoners we met were very thin, some extremely so, and they showed us clearly protruding ribs and pelvis," detailed the inspectors.
Although the documents provided a general overview of the harsh conditions of the detainees, they do not include details of specific allegations that could be of a criminal nature because the latter were sent in a confidential report to the Attorney General's Office, the newspaper pointed out.
The Times detailed that prison commanders denied the existence of systematic violence.
However, the publication recalled, on repeated occasions the Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, who has authority over the Prison Service, boasted about the harsh conditions he imposed on Palestinian inmates.
It also highlighted the systematic complaints from lawyers, non-governmental organizations, and released prisoners on the issue.
In September of last year, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that the state had not fulfilled its legal obligations to adequately feed Palestinian security prisoners. (Text and photo: PL)
