Washington Post: Palestinian inmates recount deadly abuse in Israeli jails

Former Palestinian prisoners and their lawyers have given alarming accounts of rampant violence and deprivation in Israeli jails and detention centers, according to a new report.

According to doctors from Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) quoted by the American daily newspaper Washington Post, at least 12 Palestinians from the West Bank and the 1948 Israeli-occupied territories have died from abuse in Israeli prisons since October 7 last year when the bloody Israeli onslaught on Gaza started.

The report also included witness accounts about the suffering of three of those dead inmates.

The newspaper said one Palestinian inmate died with a ruptured spleen and broken ribs after being beaten by Israeli prison guards.

Another met an excruciating end because a chronic condition went untreated. A third screamed for help for hours before dying, the Washington Post noted.

“Violence is pervasive,” said Jessica Montell, executive director of the Israeli rights group HaMoked, which has worked for years with Palestinian inmates. “It’s very overcrowded. Every prisoner that we’ve met with has lost 30 pounds.”

A 28-year-old former prisoner said guards beat them “like crazy people,” kicking and beating them with batons.

Ibrahim, the brother of Abdul Rahman al-Maari, 33, who died in Megiddo Prison in November, said his brother was detained at a temporary checkpoint last February 2023.

Ibrahim said he lost contact with his brother after the outbreak of the Israeli war on Gaza.

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An autopsy report examined by Dr. Danny Rosen of the PHRI stated that al-Maari’s ribs were broken, and that there were deformities in his back, hip, left arm, head and neck.

Khairy Hamad, 32, who was held in the same section, said al-Maari was thrown down the stairs while handcuffed and bleeding from his head, on the grounds that he had spoken back to guards during a cell search.

He said al-Maari was left for hours in pain and crying for help until he died.

Palestinian detainees have continuously resorted to open-ended hunger strikes in an attempt to express outrage at their illegal detention.

Israel keeps Palestinian inmates under deplorable conditions without proper hygienic standards. Palestinian inmates have also been subject to systematic torture, harassment, and repression.

Human rights organizations say Israel continues to violate all rights and freedoms granted to prisoners by the Fourth Geneva Convention and international laws. 

According to the Palestine Detainees Studies Center, around 60 percent of the Palestinian prisoners detained in Israeli jails suffer from chronic diseases, a number of whom died in detention or after being released due to the severity of their cases.

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