Israeli human rights group has found that Palestinian prisoners remain subject to systemic abuse and torture within Israeli prisons. The group’s latest report details the physical, psychological, and sexual abuse suffered at the hands of Israeli guards. This torture is just the latest in a longstanding pattern of institutionalized dehumanization and abuse of Palestinians by Israeli authorities.
Reed McIntire
16 March 2026
In an update to their 2024 report on Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, Israeli human rights group B’Tselem has found that systemic physical, sexual, and psychological abuses remain rampant throughout the Israeli prison system. The report comes after a ceasefire has ended a prolonged siege and genocide in Gaza, killing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and doubling the number of incarcerated Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
B’Tselem is also known as the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories. The Israeli NGO is based in Jerusalem and aims to document human rights violations in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.
The report, titled “Living Hell” (https://www.btselem.org/publications/202408_welcome_to_hell, https://www.btselem.org/publications/202601_living_hell), details the institutionalized and systemic abuses Palestinian prisoners suffered throughout their imprisonment, from the initial arrest and processing through their entire sentence. This abuse is done openly with no attempts to hide it by either Israeli guards or politicians, some of whom brag about the conditions in attempts to dehumanize Palestinians.
Between 84-94 Palestinian prisoners have died between October 2023, the start of the Gaza siege, and 2026, including one minor. Overall, an estimated 10,863 Palestinians remain in Israeli prisons, many of whom never received a fair trial or other way to prove their innocence.
Inside the Israeli penal system, Palestinian prisoners are routinely subjected to systemic abuse and torture. 76% of Palestinian prisoners reported experiencing severe violence at the time of their arrest, and 64% reported the same during their imprisonment. 44% of released Palestinian prisoners reportedly suffer long-term or recurring medical issues due to the abuse suffered.
The abuse and torture inflicted range from physical assaults, burnings, use of attack dogs or rubber bullets to sexual assault, rapes, humiliation, and psychological torment. Even the living conditions of the prisons themselves are tantamount to torture, with widespread overcrowding reported, as well as deliberate starvations, denial of fresh clothes or basic hygiene, and forcing prisoners into stress positions for prolonged periods of time or sleeping on the floor in damp, insect-ridden cells.
A notorious example of the inhuman living conditions is the Rafaket wing of Ayalon Prison. The wing is entirely underground, meaning no sunlight enters the prisoners’ spaces. The wing was closed in the 1980s due to human rights concerns; however, far-right politician Itmar Ben-Gvir reopened the wing at the debut of the Gaza siege as a means of reprisal against Palestinians.
On top of the conditions inside the walls of Israeli prisons, Palestinians are also systemically denied contact with the outside world. Prisoners are routinely denied family and attorney visits, with false security concerns cited as a rationale. Even when attorneys are permitted to see their clients, they are often forced to bring only blank papers and pens and notes are often read by guards following the visitation, a clear violation of attorney-client privilege.
Even doctors face restrictions when attempting to enter Israeli prisons. Palestinian prisoners are routinely denied even basic medical care, resulting in preventable injuries or diseases becoming worse or life-threatening. Prisoners are also often afraid to report injuries suffered following abuse or torture due to fear of reprisal from the guards. As a result, prisoners suffer otherwise preventable deaths, amputations, or other long-lasting effects. Female prisoners are also routinely denied menstrual hygiene products or gynecologic care, even while pregnant.
However, the abuse and torture of Palestinian prisoners is not hidden. In fact, Ben-Gvir and likeminded far-right politicians openly speak of the conditions inside Israeli prisons as a source of ethnonationalist pride and to further dehumanize Palestinians as a whole.
To add fuel to the proverbial fire, a bill to reintroduce the death penalty in Israeli military courts is currently in debate. If passed, the bill would establish a mandatory death penalty for terrorists “who have carried out murderous terror attacks”. The bill is cited as a means of revenge for the Israeli citizens killed in the Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023.
The death penalty was abolished in Israel in 1954 and has only been used to execute former Nazi commander Adolf Eichmann. While there have been consistent debates on reintroducing the death penalty since then, only recently has it become a real possibility.
Leading the charge is Itmar Ben-Gvir and his populist Jewish Power party, as well as their sympathizers. Ben-Gvir and his ilk openly cite a desire for revenge as the impetus for the bill. According to them, the establishment within the military and government are too weak to adequately punish or impede terrorists from acting, and only strong figures like them can truly enact justice.
However, the bill would only affect Palestinians convicted of terrorism. Within Israel’s two-tiered justice system, Palestinians are subject to military law and courts, while Jewish Israelis are not. This means that only Palestinians can be sentenced to death, even if a Jewish Israeli commits the same crime.
This blatant two teared system of justice was exposed yet again on 12 March 2026, when all charges were dropped against the five Israeli guards who were on trial for the brutal rape and torture of a Palestinian prisoner at the Sde Teiman military prison. The July 2024 crime which was caught on CCTV video and later leaked to the press caused international condemnation. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the decision to free the five perpetrators.
While Palestinians are already routinely killed extrajudicially or lynched, the bill would legitimize state killings of prisoners, thus further emboldening ethnonationalist forces to potentially kill more Palestinians. Additionally, the bill would help create further symbolic domination of Palestinians by Israelis.
The abuse and torture and potential state sponsored killing of Palestinians is an open fact in Israel. However, the international community has yet to intervene. Human rights group like B’Tselem or Physicians for Human Rights continue to urge the international community to act before more Palestinians are subject to the same inhuman treatment. As Israeli sociologist Ron Dudai said under the current legislation Palestinians receive “fewer rights than [Adolf] Eichmann]”.
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