Israeli Prisons: Places of Torture

CrossFireArabia
Opinion
March 5, 2025

Since its establishment, Israel has been accused of policies aimed at displacing Palestinian communities and altering the demographic landscape of the occupied territories. The occupation has employed lethal tactics against Palestinians including killings, torture, and arrests. Since 1967, over 1 million Palestinians have been prosecuted under Israel’s military court system and subjected to detention.

For decades, Palestinian political prisoners have been used by the Israeli occupation as bargaining chips during negotiations of the so-called “peace process.” They have exercised all forms of brutality and torture against Palestinian prisoners in interrogation and detention centers in an attempt to extract confessions – whether true or false – by force, using both psychological and physical methods against them, in a blatant disregard for international law and countless international treaties and laws related to human rights. The current level of abuse, torture, and maltreatment of Palestinian detainees is unprecedented in terms of scale and frequency.

After Oct. 7, 2023, Palestinians saw a severe spike in the occupation’s long-standing violent policies and practices. The crisis extends beyond Gaza. Reports indicate systematic abuses within Israeli prisons and military camps, amounting to crimes against humanity, as defined under international law. At least 58 Palestinian political prisoners, including 37 people arrested from Gaza, have been murdered and martyred in the occupation’s custody since Oct. 7, 2023, including through torture, lethal beatings, starvation, and severe deprivation of medical treatment. The 58 people killed are only the ones whose identities have been revealed by the occupation. Dozens more have been killed and subject to enforced disappearance in Israeli custody with authorities refusing to reveal their identities. All of this is occurring amid international inaction, with the UN, and international human rights institutions and bodies, proving their inability to protect the Palestinian people and their rights.

Enforced disappearance and mass arrests

It is worth mentioning that Israeli occupation authorities are committing the severe crime of enforced disappearance against thousands of Palestinian detainees who have been arrested from Gaza since the start of the genocide, particularly from the beginning of the ground invasion. Thousands of civilians, including men, women, and children, have been abducted from different parts of the Gaza Strip, as well as thousands more who were working as laborers in the 1948-occupied territories prior to the outbreak of the war.

The crime of enforced disappearance is one of the main features of the genocide that went on for close to 500 days. Additionally, dozens of medical personnel were targeted with arrests during the Israeli army’s repeated invasions of hospitals, the largest of which was the invasion of the Shifa Hospital. Numerous videos circulated on social media showing Palestinian detainees in degrading conditions, including being stripped naked, blindfolded, and shackled in overcrowded spaces. Many were forced into tight groups in open areas, on the streets, and in military transport vehicles while restrained and exposed. They appeared in conditions that were highly degrading to human dignity and showed a severe disregard and contempt for Palestinian lives.

The Israeli judicial system has contributed to cementing the crime of enforced disappearance, further enabling the use of torture against detainees who were abducted from Gaza. Thousands of detainees from the strip were arrested and detained based on the “illegal combatants” law issued by the Knesset (Israeli parliament) in 2002, which fundamentally violates fair trial procedures and human rights. At the start of the genocide, the occupation made legal amendments to the “illegal combatants” law, which is similar in nature to its “administrative detention” military order used in the occupied West Bank.

Among the most significant amendments made to the illegal combatants law were as follows: Extending the detainee’s initial detention period for 45 days, judicial review after 75 days, and prohibition of detainees from meeting with their lawyers for 180 days. It is important to note that since the start of the genocide, the occupation has continued to refuse to allow the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit detainees and prisoners in jails and camps as per its mandate. These amendments further institutionalized policies associated with enforced disappearance, as Israeli authorities continue to withhold information on detainees from Gaza, including their identities and locations. As a result, several human rights organizations filed petitions to the Israeli Supreme Court demanding the identities of the detainees and their places of detention. In every instance, the Supreme Court affirmed its long-standing role as a fundamental tool in cementing crimes against Palestinians.

To this day, there is no clear or accurate information about the total number of Palestinians arrested from Gaza, including women and children, nor about the martyrs who were killed through torture or executions. The only available data, up until the beginning of February 2025, shows that at least 1,882 Palestinians arrested from Gaza are categorized as “illegal combatants,” and this data does not include all of the detainees held in military camps.

Prisoner rights groups highlighted that the occupation built and restored special military camps used to detain Palestinians abducted from Gaza, alongside the existing central prisons. Among the most notorious of these military camps was the Sde Teiman camp, where detainees were subject to severe sexual assault, including rape. Other military camps being used to hold detainees from Gaza are the Anatot and Ofer camps, which have also witnessed extreme violations against Palestinian prisoners. In November 2023, when the occupation began releasing laborers from Gaza who had been held in Israel’s military camps, the prisoners’ testimonies began to reveal the level of inhumane and humiliating violations they endured. This included severe beatings, starvation, dehydration, denial of medical treatment, and keeping detainees blindfolded and handcuffed 24/7, causing many of them to need limb removal surgeries.

As time went on and more prisoners were released from Israeli custody, the testimonies only increased in terms of how horrific and shocking the crimes being committed were. The images of the detainees upon their release serve as a living testimony to the unfathomable violations committed against them. These revelations continued through several reports and journalistic investigations conducted about the Sde Teiman camp, including the leaking of a video showing soldiers gang-raping a Palestinian detainee.

International responsibility

As the genocide continues, some legal teams and human rights lawyers have been allowed limited access to a small portion of Gaza detainees. Their reports confirm systematic crimes, including extrajudicial executions, torture, and enforced disappearance. In this context, the Israeli occupation is employing the severe crime of enforced disappearance against thousands of detainees abducted from Gaza, which constitutes a crime against humanity according to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. This convention defines enforced disappearance as “the arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons or groups of persons acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which place such a person outside the protection of the law.”

We reiterate our call to the international human rights system to overcome its ongoing impotence in the face of this genocide, and to take clear decisions and actions to hold the Israeli occupation accountable. This all-out war and aggression against our people, including those held in the occupation’s military camps and central prisons, must be halted now, and not a second later.

Raed Mohammed Mahmood Amer is the president of the Palestinian Prisoners Association and wrote this article for the Anadolu news website.

CrossFireArabia

Dr. Marwan Asmar holds a PhD from Leeds University and is a freelance writer specializing on the Middle East. He has worked as a journalist since the early 1990s in Jordan and the Gulf countries, and been widely published, including at Albawaba, Gulf News, Al Ghad, World Press Review and others.

Opinion

Occupation and Israeli Violence

marwan
June 18, 2026

By Najla M. Shahwan

In the context of Israel’s unlawful occupation and its imposition of a system of apartheid against all Palestinians, and against the backdrop of its ongoing genocide in Gaza, Israeli authorities have been recently accelerating its violations of international human rights and humanitarian law in pursuing its policy of ethnic cleansing in the occupied West Bank.

This policy has been implemented through the forcible displacement of Palestinians in refugee camps, Bedouin and herding communities in the West Bank, as well as the creation and expansion of settlements , acts that amount to the war crime of unlawful deportation and transfer.

Palestine’s Permanent Mission to the UN on June 12 sounded the alarm over the newest largest wave of forced displacement of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

During a briefing held by the Palestine’s Permanent Mission to the UN in Geneva, Palestine’s Permanent Representative, ambassador Ibrahim Khraishi, warned of the unprecedented deterioration of conditions in the occupied West Bank amid the upsurge of colonist attacks, colonial settlement expansion, and the ongoing military offensive on the refugee camps of Jenin, Tulkarm and Nur Shams, which has triggered the largest wave of forced displacement in the West Bank since 1967, alongside widespread destruction of infrastructure, homes and civilian facilities.

He stressed that the West Bank was witnessing a dangerous escalation at the political, economic and humanitarian levels due to Israel’s unbridled annexation and settler-colonialism policies, arrests, extrajudicial killings, colonist violence, and the continued withholding of Palestinian clearance revenues.

On his part, UNRWA representatives outlined the latest developments in the northern West Bank, pointing to escalating destruction and the forced displacement of more than 45,000 Palestinians, attacks on infrastructure and medical facilities, and Israeli measures aimed at demolishing the Agency’s premises in occupied Jerusalem.

Israeli authorities have been accelerating annexation through a state-driven campaign of ethnic cleansing targeting Palestinian Bedouin and herding communities in Area C of the occupied West Bank, while committing the crime against humanity of forcible transfer.

The Israeli government has made formal annexation an explicit policy objective .

It has accelerated settlement expansion and land grabs, increased financial and logistical support to settlements, and has armed settlers, thereby enabling a brutal state-sanctioned campaign of settler violence and of forced displacement of Palestinians from Area C.

This area constitutes over 60 per cent of the occupied West Bank and has long been central to Israel’s efforts to control land and demographics, given its natural resources, vital grazing and agricultural land.

Communities in Area C have been facing growing risks of displacement and settlement expansion.

The Jordan Valley and South Hebron Hills have been areas under particular pressure where residents have faced repeated raids, demolitions and damage to infrastructure. Restrictions on access to land and essential services have also increased pressure on these communities and State -backed settler violence and home demolitions have forcibly displaced thousands of Palestinians in, emptying out over 100 villages entirely.

In the Gaza Strip , Israel’s ongoing military operations and evacuation orders despite the ceasefire have displaced roughly 90 per cent of the population (approximately 1.9 million people), with much of the civilian infrastructure destroyed to create long-term buffer zones.

Families have been displaced from their neighborhoods many times – and the last time they were uprooted, they were homeless for more than six months.

Israel’s ‘voluntary emigration’ plan from Gaza is its latest attempt to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from the Strip .

Israel’s defense minister has advanced plans to remove Palestinians from the Gaza Strip through “voluntary emigration”.

Israel Katz said late last May that the plans would take place “at the proper time and in the proper manner”.

Israel’s security cabinet approved a proposal by Katz in March to establish a directorate within his ministry to facilitate “migration” from the enclave.

Despite the Israeli genocide in Gaza, which has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians and wrought utter destruction on the coastal enclave, the vast majority of Palestinians there say they will never abandon their home.

Proposals for the removal of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip have been repeatedly raised during the course of the Israeli genocide.

Though some ministers have framed the move to remove Palestinians as a voluntary option, other Israeli officials have been explicitly calling for forced expulsion, which is a war crime.

Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits an occupying power from forcibly transferring , deporting or displacing occupied people from an occupied territory while the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court names deportation by “expulsion or other coercive acts” a crime against humanity.

Ninety-two per cent of Gaza’s homes have been destroyed or damaged. None of its 37 hospitals is fully functional. Aid trucks cut from 4,200 a week to 590 when Israel sealed the crossings in February, families burning trash to cook whatever arrives, children frozen to death last winter for lack of shelter materials Israel would not allow in.

The Yellow Line, the boundary of Israeli control drawn by the ceasefire, keeps moving west, swallowing water points and clinics, with Palestinians killed for approaching a line that approaches them. More than 986 Palestinians have been killed since the “ceasefire” was signed in October 2025.

Amid the expanding Israeli military incursions record levels of settler violence, and impending annexations , the overwhelming majority of the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza are fiercely resisting displacement , viewing it as a permanent severing from their homeland .

The writer is a Palestinian author, researcher and freelance journalist and contributed this article to the Jordan Times

Opinion

Arabism From The Skies?

CrossFireArabia
June 14, 2026

By Capt. Osama Shaqman

Ten years ago, I ended my official flight, but I didn’t sever my connection with the skies above. When a pilot retires he doesn’t bid farewell to the sky; rather, he carries it in his memory, in his silence, in his gaze upon the earth, and in his understanding of life, people, borders, and destiny.

For over 40 years, I roared above cities, seas, deserts, and mountains. I saw the earth from a height unseen by eyes bound by the earth, and I saw the Arab world stretching from the ocean to the gulf, separated not so much by mountains or seas, but by politics, disputes, fear, and mistrust. From the skies, borders appeared as silent, lifeless lines, but on the ground, they were transformed into high walls separating brother from brother, and Arab from Arab.

From the cockpit

From the cockpit, I learned that an airplane doesn’t reach its destination through loud voices, nor through mere desire, nor through emotional impulse. It arrives when there is a clear destination, a precise plan, a harmonious crew, vigilant monitoring, mutual trust, and discipline that knows no improvisation. Likewise, nations don’t rise with slogans, nor do they weather storms with speeches, neither do they enter the future with divided decisions, conflicting visions, and a fear of their own disunity that outweighs their own weakness.

The higher I ascended in the skies, the more I felt that the Arab world is vaster than our disagreements, that Arab history is deeper than our crises, and that what unites us is far greater than what divides us. A single language resonates in our hearts, a long history of glory and suffering, a shared religion, civilization, culture, and destiny, and peoples who share similar joys and sorrows, dignity and hope. Yet, an Arab still sometimes needs a long journey to reach his brother, the borders between us remain harsher than the distances, and visas and barriers continue to turn our one nation into scattered islands in a single sea.

Today, as I look back on the years from the vantage point of life and experience, I ask myself: When will we break free from this predicament? When will we realize that division is no longer our destiny, but a costly choice? When will we understand that the world does not wait for the weak, and that nations that fail to unite around their own interests will find themselves vulnerable to the interests of others?

We have seen many Western nations unite after long wars, after bloodshed, conflict, and devastation. They learned from their pain, opening borders, unifying markets, bringing universities closer together, and facilitating the movement of people, ideas, and goods. Yet we, possessing bonds what others lack, still hesitate before taking a step that should be natural: which is that for every Arab to feel at home in any Arab land.

I am not advocating for the abolition of homelands; for every homeland is a memory, a dignity, a flag, and a legacy of martyrs. But I call for a broader Arab horizon, for unity of interests, economic integration, educational continuity, research cooperation, open borders, and respect for the sovereignty of each nation, without this sovereignty becoming isolation or estrangement.

Two wings of a single plane

Algeria remains Algeria, Egypt remains Egypt, Jordan remains Jordan, Morocco remains Morocco, Iraq remains Iraq, the Levant remains the Levant, and the Gulf remains the Gulf; but the entire Arab nation can be the two wings of a single plane, not scattered parts of a structure that has lost its ability to take off.

From the skies, I learned that the greatest danger is not the storm, but the loss of direction. A plane may face fierce winds, may fly through dark clouds, may be rocked in the heart of the sky, but it survives if the compass remains working and if the pilot knows where he wants to land. A nation that loses its compass, however, may possess wealth, population, and history, but it remains adrift in a turbulent sky without a clear destination.

Our compass today must be clear: Knowledge before noise, action before slogans, dignity before fear, unity before division, and humanity before narrow calculations. No nation can rise without investing in the minds of its children, and no people can progress while limiting their horizons to the dreams of their youth.

O Arab nation, we have waited too long in the hall of history. It is time for us to leave our seats of waiting and allow the plane of renaissance to take off. We lack neither fuel, for our resources are abundant; nor a runway, for our land is vast; nor history, for our past is glorious. What we lack is resolve, courage, and the confidence that we can be together without one of us negating the other.

Open the borders between minds first, and the borders between nations will follow. Open universities to Arab students, markets to Arab labor, hospitals to Arab people, libraries to Arab researchers, airports to Arab travelers, and hearts to Arab trust. A nation that fears its own children will not be respected by others, and a nation that closes its doors to itself will not enter the future through its widest gates.

I retired from flying 10 years ago, but I did not retire from dreaming. I still believe that this nation is capable of rising if it is true to itself, rises above its petty differences, and understands that the heavens do not recognize the borders created by fear.

From the memory of 40 years in the skies, I say with the sincerity of age and experience: The Arab nation is not poor in potential, but rather poor in resolve. It is not weak in its essence, but rather weakened by fragmentation. It is not incapable of taking off, but it needs someone to unify its direction, awaken its confidence, and open the runway to the future.

So when will we leave the land of division?

When will we break the chains of fear?

When will we open our borders as the heavens have opened their gates to us?

A nation created to have two wings cannot remain with one wing broken. The land I saw from the skies is one, and hearts deserve to see it as well: One in dignity, one in destiny, one in the dream.

This article was first published in the Jo24 Arabic website and reprinted in crossfirearabia.com.