Hot water and sewage: Palestinians share harrowing tales of torture in Israeli prisons

By Humaira Ahad

“Like the torment of the afterlife. They burned me with boiling water,” reads the heart-wrenching testimony of a Palestinian detainee held illegally in an Israeli prison.

A recent report by the Palestinian Prisoners Society and the Palestinian Prison Club sheds light on the systematic torture and brutal treatment faced by Gaza detainees in the regime’s prisons.

“Since my arrest, I was subjected to severe beatings, causing fractures in my body, in an attempt to extract confessions from me. I remained in a camp in the Gaza Strip for 58 days, which was like the torment of the afterlife -- being shackled and beaten constantly, humiliated and insulted,” a 45-year-old Palestinian detainee was quoted as saying.

“Upon my transfer to Negev Prison, I was burned with hot water, doused with boiling liquid from an electric kettle. The scars from that torture remain etched on my body,” he added, revealing grim details.

Palestinian prisoner advocacy groups gathered this harrowing evidence between January 6 and January 8, interviewing 23 detainees across Negev Prison and Nafha Military Camp.

In a statement released on Monday, the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas strongly denounced the inhumane treatment of Palestinians in Israeli jails and demanded an end to "the terrible violations they are subjected to by the extremist Zionist junta.” 

“They are ongoing war crimes, a violation of all international laws on prisoners. We also call on international human rights institutions to highlight the suffering of our families in prisons, raise their voices, and put pressure in all forums to release them,” the statement noted.

Torture camps across occupied territories

According to the new report that exposes the systematic crimes perpetrated by the occupation forces against Gaza detainees, the Sdeh Teiman camp, which was the main location for torture operations, is no longer the only detention camp where torture and atrocities are carried out.

The Ramla prison is one of several camps created by the Israeli regime in the past 15 months to hold Palestinians from the besieged Gaza Strip. The other jails include Negev Prison and Nafha Military Camp, Ofer Camp, Naftali Camp, Anatot Camp, and Sde Teiman Camp).

In a recent viral video, Israeli minister Itamar Ben Gvir released a video from Nitzan prison in Ramla, a central city in the occupied Palestinian territories. He could be seen insulting the illegally detained detainees from Gaza using derogatory language.  

Thousands of Palestinians have been detained illegally in camps that the Israeli army established in Gaza in the aftermath of the events of October 7, 2023.

Various investigations show that as Israel’s war on Gaza rages on, the regime’s criminal campaigns against Palestinian prisoners run parallel in Israeli prisons.

Testimonies of torture

After over a year since Israel launched its genocidal war on the besieged strip, the harrowing testimonies of detainees have marked a significant shift in the level of brutality by occupation forces.

The overwhelming evidence reflects an unprecedented level of torture, abuse, starvation, systematic medical crimes, sexual assaults, and the use of human shields in the blockaded territory.

“These crimes have led to the martyrdom of dozens of detainees, in addition to field executions carried out against others,” the prisoners group stated in its report.

Recently, Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper announced that at least 68 Palestinian prisoners have died as a result of ruthless torture or medical negligence in prisons administered by the regime.

According to testimonies, many have been severely beaten, “urinated by Israeli soldiers” and “thrown sewage upon.”

One of the detainees spoke about the “spread of scabies” and worsening medical conditions due to neglect.

Prisoners said they endured relentless “brutal physical abuse,” including prolonged beatings and hours of forced kneeling while being blindfolded. Even the gravely ill were not spared. For example, at Nafha Military Camp, a cancer-stricken detainee was denied “urgent treatment,” according to a report by the Palestinian Prisoner Society.

“I sleep hungry and wake up hungry. I was arrested in February 2024, during a displacement operation, and was transferred to one of the camps in the Gaza envelope. I stayed there for 12 days before being transferred to a camp in Jerusalem, then to Ofer, and finally to Negev. Each transfer was a journey of torment and death,” a 21-year-old detainee told the Palestinian Prisoners group.

“Today, as you see, boils, wounds, and holes cover my body after contracting scabies. I sleep hungry and wake up hungry, and on top of all I suffer from eye pressure problems and need to follow up. Since my childhood, I lost sight in my right eye, and now my left eye is in severe danger.”

Another detainee, arrested in December 2024, also recounted tales of ruthless torture.

“They tortured us with beatings for an entire day and urinated on us. I was subjected to severe beatings for an entire day, and then they transferred us to another place, threw sewage water on us, urinated on us, and then moved us to a camp for 27 days,” he narrated.

“We stayed there on our knees, blindfolded, hands and feet shackled, and later transferred to Negev Prison. Today, we live in torment and slow death every hour.”

A lawyer providing legal aid was horrified to find one prisoner “shivering from the cold in a torn summer T-shirt as his body remained covered with scabies.”

Food deprivation in Israeli prisons

“We live in hell,” one detainee revealed in a recent report about the dire food shortages in Israeli prisons. “Most of us scavenge crumbs to eat one meal at night.”

“We face hunger, as the food rations are minimal and unfit for human consumption. Most of the prisoners gather crumbs to eat one meal at night. Since our arrest, we have been deprived of sugar and salt, and today we suffer from difficult detention conditions, deprived of all basic life necessities.”

A November report highlighted similar conditions of poor and insufficient food for the prisoners.

“For over seven months, detainees have been forced to eat little more than “legumes”, leading to serious health issues such as constipation,” the report said.

A freed Palestinian prisoner reported that Israeli guards in the prison would only provide “enough food to stay alive.”

Former prisoner Atef Awahdeh recounted, “For 11 prisoners, we were given just two plates of rice.” Another freed detainee, Sami Khalili, added, “Three spoonfuls of rice a day, exactly.”

In June last year, Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir ordered drastic cuts to food rations for Palestinian prisoners as a “deterrence” measure. “The Palestinian detainees will receive the bare minimum—minimum rights, minimum food—and I will enforce this policy,” he declared.

 “The Palestinian detainees will receive the minimum rights and the minimum food, and I will ensure that this policy is implemented,” Ben-Gvir announced.

In a widely circulated video, Ben-Gvir brazenly stated, “Prisoners should be shot in the head instead of being given more food.”

These harrowing accounts reveal not only the systematic torture but also the calculated deprivation that Palestinian prisoners face daily.

From scabies-covered bodies to three spoonfuls of rice a day, the Israeli prison system continues to push its captives to the brink of survival, fueling global outrage and calls for justice.

Medical negligence in Israeli prisons

Moataz Mahmoud Abu Zneid, 35, suffered severe health problems in Israeli detention but received no medical care until he fell into a coma on January 6, according to a joint statement by the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club and the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs.

Abu Zneid, from the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, had been in good health before his arrest on June 27, 2023, his family was quoted as saying.

"The prison administration deliberately delayed transferring him to the hospital and perpetrated a medical crime against him," the prisoner's groups said. 

A recent January report exposed how medical negligence is being weaponized as a form of torture by occupation forces.

“My artificial eye fell out due to severe beatings,” one detainee revealed.

“I was sheltering with my family when I was arrested. I was transferred to the Gaza envelope and held for 60 days before being transferred to Negev Prison. Due to the severe beatings I was subjected to, I lost my artificial eye. Today, I suffer from a hollow eye socket, and the soldiers did not stop there, but they took my glasses as well,” the detainee recounted, detailing the horrifying torture.

The Palestinian Prisoner Society’s report highlighted testimonies from detainees in Nafha Military Camp, underscoring the urgent need for medical care.

“At this camp, detainees’ testimonies reflected the same level of brutality practiced in other prisons, with very few differences. Detainees are primarily suffering from medical crimes and deprivation of treatment,” the report revealed.

Some prisoners suffer from life-threatening conditions, including cancer, the report stated.

One of the prisoners suffering from cancer “had undergone several surgeries before his arrest. He is now in a difficult health condition and needs medical care. This is an example of other detainees in the camp facing medical crimes, in addition to harsh detention conditions,” the report added

Previous testimonies uncovered chilling accounts of detainees being injected with unknown substances.

“I saw people suffer from serious health declines; some even got sick and were not given medical care. Some inmates were also given unknown injections by the army.”

Adding to this grim reality, Palestinian prisoner groups revealed that Israel continues to block the International Committee of the Red Cross from visiting detainees.

Unknown number of detained Palestinians

Since the outbreak of the genocidal war on Gaza, with weapons supplied by the United States, the Palestinian Prisoners Society and Prisoner Club have been unable to determine the exact number of Gaza detainees held in Zionist regime prisons.

“Institutions have not been able to track the number of Gaza detainees due to the enforced disappearance imposed by the occupation since the war began, and the number is estimated to be in the thousands.”

As of January 10, Palestinian advocacy groups confirmed that at least 10,400 Palestinians are imprisoned in Israeli jails, including 320 children and 87 women, as of that month.

The Palestinian Prisoner Society noted that “the occupation hides the names of detainees who have been martyred in camps and prisons.”

“It is worth noting that the occupation carried out wide arrest campaigns in northern Gaza, and these campaigns targeted dozens of medical staff. To this day, no information is available about the fate of those arrested recently who are still subject to enforced disappearance,” the Palestinian Prisoners Society and the Palestinian Prison Club said.

Meanwhile, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor condemned Israeli prisons as being “inherently aimed at torturing and mistreating Palestinian prisoners and detainees, while depriving them of their most basic human rights.”

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.ir