Since 7 October, Palestinian prisoners have been subjected to a systematic policy of abuse, starting with their assault during arrest, where Israeli soldiers brutally beat them in front of their families. Subsequently, they are transferred to detention centres, where visits by lawyers and representatives of the International Red Cross (IRC) are prohibited.

Events on the ground and in prisons indicate that Israel is adopting oppressive policies against prisoners, including racist practices and violations contrary to international laws that guarantee their rights and protection and ensure their access to medical treatment and food.

What is happening in Israel’s prisons violates all these international norms. Prisoners face vindictive attacks from the moment of their arrest, through the investigation, and ending in prisons, where the authorities engage in numerous acts of harassment and retaliatory assaults.

A report conducted by the Palestinian Prisoners Society notes numerous violations against prisoners, ranging from raids on their homes, terrorising their families, and brutal arrests, to physical assaults during arrests, beatings, forcing them to strip naked, and seizing their belongings, including of those already convicted.

They culminate in the denial of food, reflecting humanitarian suffering that extends to their families, who are denied information about the prisoners and their place of detention.

Photographs and videos circulated by settler-affiliated Websites and the Israeli military have also revealed occupation soldiers forcing prisoners to strip naked, either entirely or leaving them in their underwear. Some videos show prisoners fully naked and subjected to mockery and verbal abuse by Israeli soldiers.

Several prisoners have been subjected to various forms of torture. The experience of Khader Latifi from the Aida Refugee Camp represents one of many instances of such assaults, where he was beaten brutally by Israeli soldiers. Similarly, Iyad Banat from the Al-Fawwar Camp in the Hebron Governorate faced brutal aggression by Israeli soldiers.

These assaults were documented by the occupation soldiers themselves, apparently as a source of pride in their crimes.

Released prisoners who refused to appear on camera fearing re-arrest revealed that the assaults are not limited to during arrest operations but that they face torture in the prisons as well. They are subjected to humiliation, beatings, and starvation during their transfer as part of a systematic policy led by Israeli Minister of Security Itamar Ben-Gvir.

Released prisoners who spent weeks in detention said that they had faced brutal attacks by Israeli soldiers. One prisoner said that he had been brutally beaten after being restrained and forced to walk bent over, with soldiers continuously beating him throughout his detention.

Prisoners who chose not to appear in the media, fearing re-arrest, said that the Israeli forces do not provide prisoners with sufficient meals. They are given minimal amounts, with one meal distributed among the five to seven prisoners in the detention rooms.

Morning and evening roll calls can involve soldiers attacking the prisoners. It was noted that the counting process takes place while the prisoners are stripped of their clothes.

The prisoners said the Israeli forces raid the prisons, confiscate all the prisoners’ belongings, and throw them into garbage containers. Videos released by the Israeli Prison Authority showed its forces engaging in these practices.

What is happening in the Israeli prisons constitute war crimes and violations of international conventions and norms.

PROTESTS: The reality faced by the Palestinian prisoners has prompted their families and various organisations to pressure the IRC through protest activities, but to no avail.

Palestinians fear retaliation that could affect the lives of all the prisoners. Five prisoners have died as a result of torture. They endure food, water, and electricity deprivation, along with the confiscation of all their belongings.

Abdullah Al-Zaghari, head of the Palestinian Prisoners Society in the West Bank, said that since the beginning of the brutal Israeli aggression on Gaza, there has been an extensive campaign of arrests carried out by the Israeli army in the Palestinian Territories.

Since 7 October, the Israeli army has been entering various cities and camps in large numbers, armed with weapons and police dogs, blowing open doors and invading citizens’ houses.

He said that various family members, especially those associated with the arrestees, are also attacked. These practices reveal a retaliatory trend characterised by unprecedentedly brutal attacks in the history of the occupation. This has been evident in the destruction and looting of homes and the extortion of the detainees’ families by holding one family member hostage to force others to surrender.

Al-Zaghari explains that the occupation has turned its prisons into isolation cells, in addition to confiscating all prisoners’ belongings such as clothes, pictures, and even writing and books. He emphasised that the prisoners are left with nothing but the clothes they are wearing.

The Israeli prison authorities have also informed the prisoners that they are under the jurisdiction of the Israeli army. Water and electricity have been cut off for long hours, prisoners deprived of going to the prison yard, and inadequate quantities of poor-quality food provided. Additionally, lawyers have been prohibited from meeting the prisoners, and visits have been suspended, leaving the prisoners in a condition of uncertainty and facing an unknown fate.

Al-Zaghari said that the IRC has not fulfilled its duties as a humanitarian international organisation. It has not communicated with the prisoners to understand their situation inside the prisons and reveal the conditions they are living in.

He said that he had obtained some information through the military courts, which have become the link between the prisoners and their families, with lawyers present. Others learn about the prisons from released prisoners who acknowledge that detainees are subjected to severe forms of torture and brutal beatings.

He highlighted the fact that the number of detainees inside Israeli prisons now exceeds 7,500 prisoners, and approximately 2,500 have been arrested since 7 October. The majority of these detainees are previously released prisoners targeted by the occupation, either through assassination or administrative detention, which now surpasses 2,200 detainees.

Al-Zaghari explained that the occupation’s ugliest practices in the recent operations involve humiliating the Palestinian detainees. They are subjected to brutal attacks by Israeli soldiers, who sometimes film the detainees during their arrest. In some instances, loud music is played to mock them in blatant violation of international humanitarian laws.

This confirms that the occupation deals with the Palestinian as if they are not fully human and violates their dignity. There is a need for international investigations by various legal organisations to hold Israel accountable for the crimes committed against the Palestinian people.

ARREST OF CHILDREN: Since 7 October, Israeli forces have carried out numerous arrests of children, who are protected by international agreements during times of war.

Mohamed Abdel-Rabba, head of the Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Association, stated that since 7 October more than 200 children have been arrested by the occupation forces and are being held in harsh and inhumane conditions. These conditions are unbearable for adults, so how much more challenging they must be for children, he said, especially in the face of dropping temperatures and severe cold.

Abdel-Rabba called on human rights organisations, the UN, and the IRC to fulfill their responsibilities towards all prisoners, particularly child prisoners, emphasising that Israel has violated and continues to violate international norms.

Moreover, as part of its policy to conceal its crimes against prisoners, the Israeli occupation resorts to ignoring the demands of the IRC. All communications between the occupation authorities and the latter have stopped, even though the IRC is the authorised body monitoring the conditions of prisoners of war and ensuring that occupying states adhere to international standards and conventions that guarantee the protection of prisoners during times of war.

It ensures the application of international law, which stipulates the protection of prisoners’ human rights and prohibits their torture or humiliation.

Officials at the IRC do not conceal the practices of the Israeli occupation. Israel has not responded to the requests of the international organisation to know the conditions of the prisoners or their places of detention. Moreover, it refuses to grant it the opportunity to visit the prisons.

Such Israeli crimes have led to the deaths of five prisoners in the occupation’s prisons since 7 October. The families of the prisoners and Palestinian and international human rights organisations fear for the prisoners’ lives in the absence of the IRC and UN ability to force Israel to adhere to international conventions that stipulate the protection of prisoners during times of war.

Abdel-Qader Hilan, media director at the Al-Dameer Foundation, an NGO, stated that since 7 October the occupation has launched a fierce campaign of arrests against all Palestinians, with an average of 70 arrests per day. This campaign is not limited to a specific area but has targeted all regions and various categories of people, he said.

Hilan explained that the campaign is the most severe in the history of the Palestinian people, and it includes attacks, destruction, and the torture of detainees. There are approximately 200 children inside the occupation prisons.

He pointed to a new policy used by Israel to blackmail Palestinians wanted for arrest. This involves detaining the families or children of wanted persons as hostages to force them to surrender. Hilan mentioned a three-year-old child who was detained to put pressure his father.

Hilan added that the occupation is transferring large numbers of detainees to administrative detention without clear charges. He illustrated the brutal attacks and abuses against prisoners inside the prisons, where they face repeated assaults including beatings and searches.

He emphasised that the occupation employs excessive violence against the prisoners, as seen in videos circulated by occupation soldiers boasting about torturing them. The reality of the prisoners cannot be ignored, and it should be highlighted for the international community, he said.

Many Palestinians have been killed in Israeli prisons, including workers from Gaza. One of them has been identified, while the identity of the others has remained mysterious.

Hilan directed a message to all the relevant authorities concerned with the prisoners. “Where are you? What is your role in holding the occupation accountable for its crimes of extermination, assassinations, and arrests,” he asked.

There have been no effective efforts made on the ground by the relevant authorities, he added.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 23 November, 2023 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly