Palestinian detainees held at Ofer military prison have reported systematic humiliation and abuse. AFP
The prison service said in a statement that "security detainees" had been banging on their cell doors and noted that the incident was still ongoing.
Ofer Prison serves as the main release point for Palestinian detainees freed under the captives-ceasefire deal. As one of the Israeli army’s primary detention facilities, it is the only prison located within the occupied West Bank. The facility has been the site of multiple prisoner abuse cases during the ongoing war.
Palestinian institutions monitoring prisoners’ affairs have previously reported severe abuses against Palestinian detainees held in Ofer, west of Ramallah.
Palestinian prisoners released under the Gaza ceasefire agreement have described worsening conditions in overcrowded Israeli detention centres, where thousands have been held since Israel’s war on Gaza began on October 7.
According to a January 2025 report by the Palestinian Authority’s Prisoners and Freed Prisoners' Affairs Commission and the Palestinian Prisoners' Club, Israel holds over 10,400 Palestinians in its jails.
These figures do not include prisoners from Gaza, as Israel has refused to release their details. However, on December 31, 2024, Israel's Shin Bet security service reported that around 2,500 Palestinians had been arrested in Gaza that year alone, with 650 undergoing interrogation. In the occupied West Bank, the agency said it had arrested 3,682 Palestinians.
Israel has frequently carried out arbitrary detentions, often targeting individuals without clear evidence or legal justification.
Former detainees reported repeated beatings, extreme overcrowding, and the withholding of basic food rations.
The United Nations reported that between October and December 2024, Israel arrested over 4,000 Palestinians in the West Bank, marking a sharp increase in arbitrary detentions.
Israeli officials have acknowledged intensifying prison conditions for Palestinians, with far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir previously boasting that Israeli prisons would not be "summer camps" under his watch.
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