Palestinian prisoners were brought to Abu Youssef Al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah in south of Gaza as a result of the torture inflicted upon them during detention by Israeli forces in inhumane conditions [Firas Al-Shaer]
Scabies affect around 80% of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, including children, the Palestinian Prisoner Society said Sunday, citing accounts from inmanes and freed detainees, Anadolu reports.
In a briefing, the nongovernmental organization said its legal teams visited dozens of prisoners in October and early November. It said severe clothing shortages and overcrowding helped spread the disease, while prisoners received inadequate treatment.
The society said the accounts pointed to a “systematic policy” of abuse, starvation and medical neglect across Israeli prisons.
Prisoners told lawyers that special units from the Israel Prison Service entered prison wings with dogs and used rubber-coated bullets and weapons the prisoners could not identify. Some reported burns or said they were temporarily unable to move after being struck. Others reported broken teeth, fractured ribs and bruising from beatings.
The frequency of raids varied by prison, with some wings targeted every two or three days, the group said.
The advocacy group presented testimonies from several Palestinian detainees at Negev Prison in southern Israel, saying their accounts reflected conditions in other prisons.
The society said it used initials to protect the detainees’ identities. Many were afraid to speak after some prisoners were severely beaten while being taken to visits.
One detainee, identified as A.B., said he suffered severed tendons in his hand during a raid and required surgery.
The society also reported that prison units raided Section 24 at 7 am on Oct. 28, removing detainees’ mattresses and assaulting them.
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In Section 26, a detainee identified as M.K. said several of his teeth were broken in an assault. The lawyer who visited him said he was visibly afraid as he described what had happened. Detainees were also barred during the visit from signing the powers of attorney needed to pursue their cases.
Another detainee, M.S., said prison authorities deliberately removed mattresses during the day, forcing detainees to sit on the floor or on bare metal bunks. He said the practice made conditions particularly difficult for sick and older detainees, especially those with bone or limb ailments.
A detainee identified as M.H. said access to the prison yard was at the guards’ discretion and that severe overcrowding forced most detainees to sleep on the floors of their cells.
In Section 25, a detainee identified as N.Y. described the fear and anxiety detainees felt ahead of roll call or what prison authorities call a “security check,” because such checks often involved raids and severe beatings. He said he had been beaten and left with bruises across his body.
Another detainee, identified as D.H., said prison units carried out a large-scale raid on Section 24 on Oct. 28, spraying detainees with gas and firing rubber bullets, injuring three. He said officers also stormed several cells and severely beat detainees.
The group said women held at Damon Prison in northern Israel reported conditions similar to those in other prisons, including starvation, systematic repression, searches, mistreatment and denial of rights. It said authorities used access to health care and basic items needed by women as a means of humiliation.
Conditions had worsened as the number of women detained increased, aggravating overcrowding and clothing shortages, the society said. Some women reported limb spasms, as well as skin bumps and severe itching that kept them from sleeping.
The society said prison authorities continued to deny that the women had scabies, attributing their symptoms to allergies, even though tests on women after their release confirmed that they had the disease.
It renewed its call for international human rights groups to end what it described as their continued inability to act “in the face of crimes committed by the Israeli occupation system against prisoners, aimed at destroying them physically and psychologically.”
According to the society, more than 9,300 Palestinians are held in Israeli prisons, including around 90 women.
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Around 80% of Palestinian prisoners suffer from scabies in Israeli jails, advocacy group says
