Audit Finds Palestinian Inmates Face Starvation and Beatings in Israeli Prisons

An inspect by yisrael’s Public withstander’s power found conditions for Palestinian security prisoners deteriorated severely after the attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, including extreme overcrowding, hunger and near-daily beatings for many.

The report by the office, part of Israel’s Justice Ministry, marked a rare official acknowledgment of grueling conditions that former Palestinian prisoners have long alleged they endured while locked up. The conditions amounted to “one of the most severe detention crises that the state has known,” the report said.

The audit covered the years 2023 and 2024 and was based on visits by a team of lawyers from the office to dozens of Israel Prison Service detention centers across the country, including eight facilities holding Palestinian prisoners. The team interviewed dozens of inmates during each visit and examined their environment.

“It was found that the prisoners in these facilities suffer from extreme starvation manifesting in acute weight loss and accompanying physical symptoms, including extreme physical weakness and even fainting episodes,” the report said of the centers housing Palestinians. “The issue was clearly visible—many of the prisoners met by the visitors appeared very thin, some extremely so. In some cases, prisoners also reported restricted access to drinking water.”

The Prison Service said its facilities have been swollen by the detention of thousands of Palestinians since the start of the war and that its staff follows the law. It didn’t respond to a request for comment on hunger, beatings or other allegations of abuse in the report.

The Public Defender’s Office said it immediately reported its findings to prison commanders after its visits to the facilities. Those reports sometimes brought about improvements in access to drinking water and hygiene products, as well as a “slight improvement” in availability of food and medical treatment, the audit found.

“Despite these improvements, the conditions of the security prisoners overall remain difficult,” the report said, referring to Palestinians held in the facilities.

The Public Defender’s Office has been conducting biennial audits of the Prison Service since 1999 as part of its role to protect the rights of detainees and prisoners.

The Prison Service is overseen by far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has boasted that he has made conditions for Palestinian detainees worse, including by cutting their rations of food.

A spokesperson for Ben-Gvir didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.

According to the report, Palestinian prisoners told the lawyers visiting the detention facilities that they suffered severe and unprovoked violence from prison staff on a nearly routine basis, including when their cells were searched or they were moved inside the prison or to a courthouse. Prisoners told the officials they were denied medical care, including for chronic conditions and for extreme cases of pain and suffering.

The report said the visiting lawyers witnessed severe overcrowding, emaciated prisoners, a lack of hygiene, including the lack of access to soap, and cases of scabies that became an epidemic in the Israeli prison system during the war.

The authors said reports of violence against detainees were passed on to the office of Israel’s attorney general.

At least 98 Palestinians have died in Israeli custody since October 2023, according to a separate report released in November by Physicians for Human Rights, a rights group. Of that total—the highest the group had ever recorded—46 died in the Prison Service and an additional 52 in facilities run by the military.

The Prison Service and military said they operate according to the law and that deaths in their facilities are examined by competent authorities.

The Public Defender’s Office said its team found that living space for 90% of Palestinian prisoners is below three square meters. At the time of a visit to the Ketziot prison in May 2024, the facility was at double its capacity, with nine to 12 prisoners per cell and half sleeping on the floor.

This latest audit was the first time since the start of the war in Gaza that the Public Defender’s Office was allowed to visit several detention facilities holding Palestinian prisoners. In its prior report, for the year 2023, the team was only able to visit one prison housing Palestinians.

Since the Oct. 7 attacks, the Israel Prison Service has denied Palestinian prisoners visits by the Red Cross, even though they are required by international law, saying Israelis taken hostage by Hamas that day hadn’t been allowed to be seen by the Red Cross, either.

Hamas returned the last living hostages held in Gaza nearly two months ago.

Rights groups and Palestinian prisoners have alleged severe mistreatment of Palestinian detainees since the start of the war in Gaza, including allegations of sexual abuse of an inmate at Sde Teiman, a notorious military-run detention center that was established after the start of the war.

A document signed by the head of Israel’s Shin Bet internal security service in June 2024, viewed by The Wall Street Journal, warned the conditions in which Palestinians were being held could violate international law and recommended immediate changes to Israel’s conduct.

The report also examined the conditions of Jewish Israeli criminals held in Prison Service facilities and detailed a grim picture of overcrowding, inadequate hygiene, and an acute lack of psychiatric care. It said the overcrowding caused by thousands of new prisoners from the war had worsened conditions.

Write to Anat Peled at anat.peled@wsj.com

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