Haaretz exposes dire conditions: starvation, beatings, and abuse in Israeli prisons

The Israeli media outlet Haaretz, responding to the recent report by the Israeli Attorney General’s Office on the conditions of Palestinian prisoners, provided additional details about their situation.

According to Haaretz, the number of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails has increased since the start of the war on Gaza in October 2023 and the intensification of the arrest campaign targeting Palestinians.

While the capacity of Israeli prisons is 14,500 inmates, by the end of 2024 the prison population had reached 23,000. Ninety percent of Palestinian prisoners are held in cells measuring less than three square meters.

At the same time, Palestinian prisoners spend 23 hours a day in cramped, overcrowded cells with poor hygiene conditions.

Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons suffer from deliberate starvation and severe malnutrition.

In several prisons, Palestinian inmates are routinely subjected to extreme violence and systematic abuse by guards.

Citing the Attorney General’s report, Haaretz reported outbreaks of several skin diseases in Israeli prisons, noting that many Palestinian prisoners have become infected.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club reported that the number of Palestinian prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment in Israeli jails has risen to 115.

In its latest report published on Friday, November 28, 2025, the United Nations announced that Palestinian and Israeli human rights groups have provided painful details about conditions in Israeli prisons and detention centers.

The UN report expressed particular concern over reports of mass arrests of children, pregnant women, and the elderly.

It highlighted the high proportion of Palestinian children currently held in administrative detention without charge, noting that although the age of criminal responsibility imposed by Israel is 12, children under the age of 12 have been detained.

The report stated that the detention of these individuals and the practices imposed on them violate international standards.

The United Nations further argued that Israel’s daily policies in the occupied Palestinian territories, in general, may amount to torture.

According to the report, 75 Palestinians have died in detention during the Gaza war—during which detention conditions sharply deteriorated. The death rate has been abnormally high and appears to have affected only Palestinian detainees. To date, no official has been held responsible or accountable for these deaths.

However, the section of the report released today regarding detention center conditions is the most shocking. Evidence shows that Palestinians are frequently deprived of food and water and subjected to severe beatings, dog attacks, electric shocks, simulated drowning, and sexual assault.

The report states that some Palestinian prisoners are kept permanently in chains, denied access to toilets, systematically deprived of medical care, and, in some cases, subjected to such excessive restraint that it has led to amputations.

The United Nations concluded that evidence of an “official policy of widespread, organized torture” by Israel is among the acts that, under international law, could constitute genocide.