Israel has created a system of routine abuse against thousands of Palestinians in its prisons: severe violence, inhuman conditions, deliberate starvation, denial of medical care, humiliation and psychological abuse.
Some released prisoners recounted severe sexual violence: sexual assault, threats of sexual assault, forced stripping, serious injury to genitals from beating, and forced anal penetration.
B’Tselem reports the names of 84 Palestinians, including one minor, who died in Israeli prisons in the past two years as a result of torture, denial of medical care and inhuman conditions. There is cause for grave concern that the full figure is much higher.
Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir has boasted on TV and social media about the inhuman detention conditions for Palestinians. The Israel Prison Service has put the abuse on display, providing the media access to the facilities and video footage.
Although B’Tselem and other human rights organizations have reported on these torture camps in detail, with extensive local and international media coverage, the international community continues to grant the Israeli regime full immunity.
Incarceration is central to the Israeli apartheid regime’s system of repression and control. Israel has imprisoned more than 800,000 Palestinians over the years, many of them without trial or concrete charges.
The dehumanization and violence directed at Palestinians, and the dismantling of the Palestinian collective, are foundational to the Israeli regime. These foundations, which govern the treatment of Palestinian prisoners, are what enables the genocide in Gaza and the ethnic cleansing in the West Bank.
Link to the full report >
btselem.org/publications/202…