Trapped in darkness: Palestinian prisoners in Israel’s underground Rockfit

A report published today (Saturday) by The Guardian details the situation of these Palestinians held in the underground facility of Rockfit Prison. According to the report, the prison is entirely subterranean; detainees see no daylight, receive insufficient food, and are cut off from their families and current events. In addition, they are regularly subjected to beatings and violence.

The Guardian identified at least two civilians without charges or trials among the detainees: a nurse and a young food vendor. Lawyers from the General Committee Against Torture in Occupied Palestine stated that these two individuals have been held in Rockfit’s underground cells since January and have been regularly subjected to abuse—conditions consistent with documented torture in other Israeli detention centers.

Rockfit Prison was originally built in the early 1980s to hold some of Israel’s most dangerous criminals but was closed after several years due to inhumane conditions. However, Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s Minister of Internal Security, ordered its reopening after October 7, 2023.

The cells, small exercise yard, and lawyer visitation room are all underground, with prisoners seeing no natural light. Official data shows that while the prison held only 15 detainees in 1985, it now houses around 100. Lawyers assert that Israeli authorities’ claims about rehabilitating Hamas members or Hezbollah special forces are false—the prisoners are civilians. One detainee was an 18-year-old food vendor detained at a checkpoint.

Tal Steiner, Executive Director of the Committee Against Torture, stated that the conditions in this prison reflect a unique form of abuse, with months of confinement underground without daylight having serious psychological consequences. He added: “Maintaining one’s security in such a repressive and harsh environment is extremely difficult.”

The Guardian also detailed the first visit by lawyers to the prison. They were escorted underground by armed, masked guards and descended dirty stairs. The floor was littered with dead insects, and the toilets were unusable. Wall-mounted cameras violated the right to confidential meetings, and guards warned that if the lawyers discussed the prisoners’ families or the war in Gaza, the visitation would be immediately terminated.

Jenan Abdo, one of the visiting lawyers, said: “I thought, if the visitation room is this humiliating—not just for us personally, but for our profession—what must the prisoners be enduring?” She continued: “I got my answer quickly when I saw them.”

Abdo explained that two detainees were brought in with bent posture, forced by guards to keep their heads down, with hands and feet bound. One young detainee asked whether his pregnant wife had delivered the baby safely, but the guard interrupted the conversation and threatened him. When the detainees were returned, the sound of an elevator suggested their cells were even deeper underground. The young detainee told Abdo: “You’re the first person I’ve seen since being detained,”

and his final request was: “Please come see me again.”

Saja Mashreki Bransi, the second lawyer, said the two detainees have been held in Rockfit for about nine months. The nurse asked at the start of the visit: “Where am I and why am I here?”

because the guards had not told him the prison’s name. Israeli judges, who approved their detention via brief video sessions, had informed them that they would remain in custody “until the end of the war”, without access to a lawyer or the evidence against them.

The prisoners described windowless cells with no ventilation, each holding three or four people, often causing shortness of breath and a feeling of suffocation. According to The Guardian, they reported regular beatings by guards, including attacks by leashed dogs, being kicked, denied adequate medical care, and receiving insufficient food.

They are allowed only very short periods, sometimes less than five minutes every two days, outside their cells in a tiny underground space. Their beds are folded up at 4 a.m. and only returned late at night, forcing prisoners to sleep on empty metal beds.

Mashreki Bransi added that the nurse last saw daylight on January 21 of this year, when he was transferred to Rockfit after a year of moving between other prisons, including the notorious Sde Teyman facility.

A father of three, he has received no news from his family. The only information the lawyers can relay comes from relatives who have authorized legal representation; Abdo informed him that his mother had appointed him a lawyer, which was “a small piece of news” confirming that she is still alive.