RAMALLAH, (PIC)
The child prisoner M.W. recounts how he had to remove the surgical stitches from his teeth with the help of his fellow inmates in Israel’s Ofer prison after the prison administration refused to provide him with treatment. He repeatedly requested to have the stitches removed, but the prison administration’s neglect forced him to use primitive methods to take them out.
The child prisoner said in his testimony relayed by lawyers of the Palestinian Prisoner Society (PPS), “When I was arrested, I was in the process of treating my teeth, and several of my molars had undergone surgery. I asked the prison administration multiple times to remove the stitches after some time had passed, without a response, so I did it myself with the help of other inmates.”
This incident, along with other testimonies collected by the PPS in January, reflects how the Israeli prison system continues to carry out systematic violations against Palestinian prisoners under harsh circumstances and brutal treatment. Prisoners suffer from torture, medical neglect, and deliberate starvation, making the prisons an extension of the war and aggression against the Palestinian people.
In the testimony of another child, children had to knock on doors and walls after the health condition of one child in the section deteriorated, as he was suffering from respiratory and throat issues. After several attempts, the child was taken to the prison clinic. However, the prison administration stormed the room-cell and transferred several children to other rooms-cells as punishment for what they did.
Humiliating procedures
Prisoner A.D. from Ofer prison states that the pace of raids, assaults, and repression in the sections continues and has recently increased, using police dogs and sound bombs during the incursions. This is confirmed by prisoner T.B., who states that the prison administration regularly practices humiliation and brutal treatment against the prisoners, deliberately throwing sound bombs inside the sections.
Prisoner D.Y. recounts how prison guards stormed the section where the prisoners were held due to their refusal to undergo the daily count or what is called the security check as part of humiliating and exhausting search procedures specially for the sick, which led to violent assaults on them, including the direct spraying of gas in their faces. As a result, prisoner S.A. was subjected to brutal beating that broke his front teeth, yet the prison administration refuses to provide any treatment for him.
Prisoner N.H. suffered severe beating, bruises, and fractures in his fingers during a raid on the section on January 12, 2025, and his suffering continued during his 14-day isolation, during which he was subjected to daily beatings and torture, was deprived of food, had his mattress taken away, and was stripped of his clothes.
Deliberate medical neglect
Meanwhile, prisoner Muhammad Khudhayrat from the town of Dhahiriya, south of Al-Khalil, said that he was arrested on June 1, 2024, shortly after undergoing a bone marrow transplant. Doctors had decided to subject him to a biological treatment protocol, and he received two out of 14 doses. Nevertheless, the occupation continues to detain him under harsh and tragic conditions.
Khudhayrat adds in his testimony to the PPS lawyer, “My health condition is worsening, especially after I contracted scabies, which the prison system has turned into a tool for torturing us and has become a nightmare hovering over the cell where I and a group of prisoners are held. We all suffer from severe itching, and blood is dripping from our bodies due to the scratching, not to mention our inability to sleep.”
He continued, “The issue is no longer limited to the lack of treatment for scabies, but even my cancer treatment. Since last October, I have only undergone an MRI after numerous requests, and until today, I do not know the result, despite my repeated demands for explanations about the developments in my health condition or even to see a doctor, but to no avail. The prison administration treats me with contempt.”
In addition to all this, malnutrition looms over all Israeli prison cells, as prisoners are literally dying of hunger. They are not allowed to store leftover food from bread slices, and anyone found with leftover bread slices has their cell stormed, and the prisoners are assaulted. Furthermore, prisoners suffer from extreme cold and are not provided with blankets, nor are there enough clothes, not to mention the overcrowding that increases day by day.
Calls for international action
The PPS renewed its call in its report for international human rights organizations to take serious action to hold Israel accountable for the war crimes it commits against prisoners.
It pointed out that the number of sick cases is increasing in the Israeli prisons due to two main factors: the prolonged detention of thousands in difficult and tragic conditions, in addition to the arrest of more citizens, including the wounded and sick, who need intensive health care.
As for the fundamental crime behind everything happening in the prisons—torture—it continues to be the most prominent issue in the prisoners’ detention conditions, according to the PPS. It stressed the necessity of taking binding decisions to put an end to these crimes and imposing international sanctions that ensure the legal accountability of Israel and end the state of impunity it enjoys in international forums.
The PPS concluded, “It is time to end these ongoing crimes against prisoners and the Palestinian people as a whole, and to put an end to this colonial system that practices organized genocide without deterrent.”
