Israel has turned prisons into "hells" through systematic torture
While Israel has been committing genocide in the Gaza Strip for a year, it has also turned prisons into places of routine torture against Palestinians.
Since October 27, 2023, Israel has detained thousands of Palestinians in the exclave, including women, children, doctors and civil defense personnel.
Thousands of Palestinians have been arrested simply for being of "fighting age" or for supporting the Palestinian resistance. Some of them were later released, others are serving their sentences in inhumane conditions.
Israeli prisons have become torture camps
Israeli prisons have become "torture camps" where Palestinians are subjected to brutal torture, including physical and sexual abuse, starvation and sleep deprivation, according to a report by Israeli non-profit organization B'Tselem.
The report, "Welcome to Hell: Israel's Prisons Become a Network of Torture Camps," was published in several languages in August.
During the research, Betselem collected testimonies from 55 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. 30 of them are residents of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, 21 are from the Gaza Strip, and four are Israeli citizens of Arab origin.
Former prisoners, including doctors, women scientists, lawyers, university students, children and political leaders, have spoken about their experiences in Israeli prisons since October 7, 2023, when Israel launched attacks on the Gaza Strip.
Palestinians have alleged a systematic policy of violence and torture in prisons, including sexual abuse, humiliation, starvation and brutal arbitrary detention.
Sexual assault, humiliation, deliberate starvation, forced unsanitary conditions, sleep deprivation, prohibitions and penalties against religious practices, confiscation of all personal belongings, and denial of proper medical care - this is how former prisoners describe the conditions in Israeli prisons.
The report found that every detainee in more than 12 military civilian prisons was deliberately subjected to brutal, unrelenting pain and suffering.
Before the attacks in the Gaza Strip, there were 5,192 Palestinians in Israeli prisons, and at the beginning of July 2024, there were 9,623. 4,781 Palestinians were placed in prisons under the guise of "administrative detention" without trial or charges.
It is not known exactly how many Palestinians are being held in Israeli prisons, but according to Israeli media, the number is at least 4,500.
"Israel's Guantanamo Bay": Unprecedented Torture in Detention Center Sde Teiman
In the Gaza Strip, Sde Teyman is considered one of the most brutal prisons where Palestinians are subjected to inhumane crimes, especially sexual violence and torture, captured by the Israeli army.
The physical and mental abuse of Palestinians in Israeli prisons is detailed in a report by the Israel-based NGO Civil Rights Association.
The report noted that surgeries at Sde Tejman were performed without anesthesia, prisoners were handcuffed in a painful manner, blindfolded for long periods of time, violence was used, and medical neglect was observed.
48 Palestinians were killed in Israeli prisons
Haaretz reported on July 29 that the Israeli army is investigating the deaths of 48 Palestinians in Israeli prisons.
It was noted that most of these people were captured in Gaza, and 36 of them died in Sde Teyman.
On September 18, Israel's Supreme Court rejected a request to close Sde Teiman despite human rights organizations' evidence of abuses at the detention center.
In addition to Sde Teiman, Haaretz noted that the Megiddo prison in northern Israel is another prison where horrific crimes against Palestinian prisoners are regularly committed and torture is routinely used.
Leaked documents from Megiddo revealed that hundreds of Palestinian prisoners were subjected to a series of horrific tortures, including dog attacks to humiliate them.
