The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday published allegations from a dozen released Palestinian prisoners, including several convicted of terrorism-related offenses, who claimed they were sexually and physically abused while in Israel’s custody after the October 7 attack.
The former prisoners told the WSJ they had been beaten, starved, and some claimed to have been sexually assaulted in front of other prisoners.
“Every day, three times a day, someone was being beaten,” claimed Iyad Omar, who was convicted of attempted murder in 2002.
“This kind of thing never happened before October 7. Back then, we only faced this type of abuse if there was a hunger strike or a riot.”
One former Palestinian prisoner, Khaled Abu Hanoud, also said he’d noticed a tougher approach from October 7, 2023 until his release in early 2025.
The Israel Prison Service has repeatedly denied any allegations of abusing prisoners, telling WSJ the claims were “false, recycled, and entirely without factual basis."
Conditions changed after October 7, prisoners say
The former prisoners claimed that on the day of the Hamas attack, the power went out at Lavi prison in the Negev, sparking cheers from inmates who knew Hamas would take hostages, and believed their freedom could be near.
Later in the day, guards searched each cell and seized “almost all personal items,” and the prisoners began facing “more severe and frequent” beatings, the report claimed.
The former prisoners claimed the beatings were often carried out by the prison’s tactical units Keter - the unit which responds to prison riots - and Metzada - the IPS’s hostage-rescue force operating, which also works to halt riots.
Mohammad Mardawi, who was convicted in 1999 for being a member of Hamas, said that in April 2024, he was held in a single-person cell with two other prisoners, and was beaten and sodomized after watching soldiers fire guns at the feet of new detainees.
Mardawi said his injuries had healed before his release.
Auditors from the Ministry of Justice and United Nations agencies later found that detainees were starved and beaten, particularly during transfers and searches, WSJ wrote.
Former Palestinian prisoners allege medical neglect in Israeli prisoners
Autopsies of some Palestinians who died in custody showed signs of physical assault, medical neglect, and malnutrition, and doctors and rights groups described instances of sexual violence, according to WSJ.
Physicians for Human Rights Israel, an Israeli medical advocacy nonprofit that monitors prisons, said that all 59 prisoners visited by the organization since February reported insufficient food and medical treatment.
The organization stated that outbreaks of scabies, a skin disease associated with inadequate sanitary conditions that can become fatal if untreated, were found in five facilities in a letter to the prison service, viewed by WSJ.
Six of the 12 former prisoners WSJ spoke to said they’d been denied necessary medical care, with three saying they’d contracted scabies.
One 19-year-old prisoner held without charge developed a spine infection following repeated scabies exposures and became paralyzed in both legs and partially in one arm and lost the ability to control his bowels, according to a ruling to release him by an Israeli military court and a doctor’s report, WSJ wrote.
The High Court ruled last year that the state failed to meet prisoners' basic needs after a petition from civil-society groups accused the government of starving them.
In the past month, the court also ruled that the ban on Red Cross visits to prisoners violates both international and Israeli law.
Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) called for greater Red Cross access in 2024, claiming that prison conditions could violate the UN convention against torture, according to WSJ.
In May, the UN added Israel to a list of countries it says have committed sexual violence in warzones, citing violations against Palestinian prisoners.
Israel has vehemently denied these allegations and said it would end relations with the UN secretary-general’s office.
Pew Research Center surveys have found foreign views of Israel to be deteriorating, with 62% of US adults viewing the Israeli government unfavorably, up from 43% in 2022.
Some 9,300 Palestinians are in Israeli custody, up from about 5,200 before the war, most of them held without charge, Hamoked, an Israeli nonprofit with access to prison population data, said.
Physicians for Human Rights Israel says it has tracked 105 Palestinian deaths in Israeli custody since October 7, 2023, the WSJ reported.
Danya Saperstein contributed to this report.