Op-Ed: Hidden Atrocities: The Silence on Palestinian Detainees in Israel

Israeli soldiers at the gate of Israeli military base/prison Sde Teiman where inside, soldiers are being questioned for abusing Palestinian detainees. July 29, 2024. (Photo: AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)

B’Tselem report: The mistreatment and torture of Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons

B’Tselem – The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories – has been documenting, researching and publishing data, testimonies, video evidence and reports on human rights violations in Israel-occupied territories since its founding in 1989. In August 2024, the organization released an 118-page report accusing the Israeli government of carrying out systematic abuse and torture of Palestinian detainees, particularly in the aftermath of the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.

The report prefaces with details of Israel’s historic mass incarceration of Palestinians, pointing out that Israel's prison system has incarcerated hundreds of thousands of Palestinians over the years. It has targeted individuals from all sectors of society in an effort to undermine the “social and political fabric of the Palestinian population.” The report includes interviews conducted with 55 prisoners who recall the extreme mistreatment and abuse they endured under Israeli authority.

B’Tselem reports that, as of early July 2024, there were 9,623 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and detention centers, with 4,781 of them being imprisoned without trial. Many of these detainees were not informed of the charges against them, nor were they granted the opportunity to defend themselves. The majority have never been convicted of a crime, are routinely denied legal rights and access to the outside world and many are simply held as “unlawful combatants.”

Treatment of Palestinian prisoners severely worsened following the October 7 attack. This shift was felt across all prisons and affected all Palestinian detainees – whether arrested before or after the attack and regardless of their involvement in it. 

With the outbreak of war, the Israel Prison Service (IPS) implemented a “lockdown” policy aimed at severely restricting the movement of Palestinian prisoners and isolating them from the outside world as extensively as possible, further subjecting detainees to prolonged detention without the ability to challenge their imprisonment.

B’Tselem included an interview with 41-year-old Sami Khalili in their report. Sami was held in Israeli prisons from February 2003 to February 2024 and had no affiliation with Hamas. “Until the war, I was held in tents in the Negev Prison and the conditions were reasonable. After the war broke out, I was transferred with all the other inmates to cells on 15 October 2023. That’s when our ordeal began,” Sami reports to B’Tselem field researcher Salma a-Deb’i. He recalls the extreme and constant abuse that took place under Israeli authority, resulting in him being released with two cracked ribs.

“We were taken to a room which had a lot of clothes, shoes, rings and watches scattered in it. We were stripped naked and even had to take off our underwear. We were searched with a hand-held metal detector.They forced us to spread our legs and then sit half crouching. Then they started hitting us on our private parts with the detector. They rained blows down on us. Then they ordered us to salute an Israeli flag that was hanging on the wall. When one of them ordered me to salute the flag, I refused. Then two members of the IRF (Initial Response Force) unit beat me all over my body. One kneed me in the stomach. I fell down and threw up, and then the other kicked me in a private part of my body. I was in terrible pain.” 

The physical and psychological abuse suffered by Palestinians under Israeli detention is extreme, elaborate and creatively cruel. Suspecting Palestinians of being Hamas terrorists or otherwise threats to the Israeli state has long been a faulty basis for widespread incarceration, and it is clear that Israel is hiding a vastly larger agenda aimed at executing mass cruelty.

Sde Teiman detention facility and UNRWA report

One Israeli prison of particular interest is Sde Teiman. Originally a military base that doubled as a prison following October 7, an estimated 4,000 Palestinians are believed to have been held there in late May 2024. 

On Sunday July 28, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir acknowledged that conditions inside Israeli prisons worsened following October 7. “The conditions of terrorists in prisons have indeed worsened and the summer camps have stopped and I am proud of that” the minister quotes.

In an international investigation conducted by CNN this year, an Israeli whistleblower recounted his experience working at the Sde Teiman detention facility. “We were told they were not allowed to move. They should sit upright. They’re not allowed to talk. Not allowed to peek under their blindfold” reported one of the three whistleblowers interviewed anonymously by the news organization. 

These detention facilities are part of Israel’s Unlawful Combatants Law, an amended piece of legislation passed by the Knesset  – the Israeli Parliament – in December 2023. It grants the military expanded powers to detain suspected militants. The law allows the military to hold individuals for up to 45 days without an arrest warrant.

The military detention camps act as an initial screening point under the Unlawful Combatants Law. Prisoners suspected of ties to Hamas are transferred to the IPS, while those deemed not to have militant connections are released back to Gaza. Whistleblowers have reported extreme treatment, including constant handcuffing, leading to cases where doctors have been forced to routinely amputate prisoners’ limbs due to the severity of the conditions.

Many of these allegations are echoed in interviews conducted by officials from UNRWA, the main UN agency for Palestinians, which Israel claims has been infiltrated by Hamas – an accusation the agency denies. UNRWA spoke with hundreds of released detainees who reported widespread abuse in Sde Teiman and other Israeli detention facilities, including beatings and the use of electric probes. An UNRWA report made public on April 16, 2024 includes the testimonies of Palestinian detainees, with some claiming they were subjected to sexual abuse. Adult male detainees described being forced to sit on hot metal rods, according to the report.

These testimonies rarely reach mainstream media and wider audiences. Palestinian suffering is largely overlooked by Western news outlets and political leaders, continuing the long-upheld pattern of dismissing the pain of people of color – in this case, Palestinians. The US’s strong alliance with Israel also manipulates the coverage, intensifying a reluctance within US media to report on the realities of Israeli detention centers. 

Conclusion: The Israeli government's suppression of Israel-Gaza war coverage

Accusations of Israeli media censorship gained attention when The New York Times published an opinion piece with the controversial title “The Israeli Censorship Regime is Growing. That Needs to Stop” in April 2024. Coming from a highly left-biased news source, the article, like others of its kind, was quickly deemed extremist. 

In the article, Jodie Ginsberg, CEO of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), argued that Israel’s increasing restrictions on the press are undermining democratic values. She pointed to the high number of journalist deaths and arrests, particularly in the West Bank, as well as laws that allow the government to shut down foreign media outlets deemed a security threat. Ginsberg also criticized Israel’s refusal to grant foreign journalists independent access to Gaza, calling these actions indicative of a regime that suppresses press freedom — behavior she described as more fitting for a dictatorship than a democracy.

In addition to restrictions on Gaza, specific media outlets face increasing pressure. In early April, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he would “act immediately” to shut down Al Jazeera’s operations in Israel, a Qatar-based and funded news outlet that has faced growing scrutiny from Israeli authorities.

For months, journalist organizations and reporters have been lobbying for access to Gaza, but the Israeli government shows no signs of relenting. The only trips allowed into Gaza have been through Israel Defense Forces-controlled embeds, where journalists travel with the military, severely censoring story coverage.

American news outlets further censor Gaza-Israel war coverage by favoring Israeli narratives. Protests and movements on Palestine’s behalf in the Gaza-Israel war are largely perceived as a leftist movement in America. In truth, the cruelty on Palestinians transcends any American political and social predispositions and should not be categorized as an inherently leftist movement in our polarized political system. Palestinians are vilified by Israel and, by extension, the US, furthering the tendency to dismiss – or entirely not perceive – their incredible mistreatment. US political leaders keep the topic at arm's length, speaking passively and vaguely on the topic to avoid backlash. 

Palestinians have a long history of enduring displacement and systemic violence, but they hold an even deeper history of resilience, resistance and a steadfast struggle for existence.

A photo of one of Israel's prisons, taken from the city of Ramallah, near the West Bank. July 4, 2024. (Photo: AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)