Conditions of Detention

Starvation & Denial of Food

After 7 October 2023, the Israel Prison Service imposed a deliberate starvation policy, cutting the standard three daily meals to two with reduced, poor-quality portions, as documented in the joint Urgent Appeal on Torture by Al-Haq, Addameer, PCHR, Al Mezan and WCLAC. Water refrigerators were switched off, forcing prisoners to drink tap water they described as unclean and yellowish.

Al Mezan documented breakfasts as meagre as ten slices of bread and one small container of labneh shared among the twelve detainees in a room, and a single egg or one can of tuna for an entire room as the day's third meal. Detainees report acute emaciation, fatigue and curvature of the back — one prisoner had "become skeletal" six months after his arrest.

Palestinians seized from Gaza during the mass-detention campaign were deprived of food entirely during their first days in custody, according to a December 2023 joint statement by Al-Haq, PCHR and Al Mezan.

Medical Neglect

The Prison Service practices systematic, deliberate medical neglect — preventing sick prisoners from reaching clinics, consulting doctors, or receiving their prescribed medication — a policy the joint Urgent Appeal found intensified after October 2023. Cancer patient Asif al-Rifai was given a chemotherapy dose his body could not tolerate, leading to loss of consciousness; prisoner M.S., 40, was denied treatment for Behçet's disease and high blood pressure.

Between 7 October 2023 and 22 April 2024, Al Mezan documented 16 deaths of Palestinian prisoners and detainees resulting from medical negligence or escalated torture. Among the dead was Dr. Adnan al-Bursh, a 50-year-old orthopedic surgeon abducted in December 2023, who died in custody at Ofer Prison on 19 April 2024.

These tolls are time-bounded and cumulative since 7 October 2023 — they have risen since the reports were published.

Beatings & Physical Violence

Released detainees describe being systematically beaten throughout their detention. Al Mezan gathered dozens of testimonies documenting violence at "unprecedented levels," including accounts from survivors who witnessed fellow detainees being beaten to death.

The body of Ismail Abdelbari Khader, 33 — the first Palestinian detainee whose body was returned to Gaza, on 2 May 2024 — bore torture marks on his wrists and swelling in his shoulders, knees and chest, according to the director of Abu Youssef al-Najjar Hospital.

Released prisoner Abeer Ghaben told Al-Haq that detainees were dragged by the hair "as if we were dogs," beaten with brass knuckles, rifle butts, military boots and sandals, and strip-searched while naked. Among children, DCIP found that of 752 sworn affidavits collected between 2014 and 2019, 72 percent of child detainees were subjected to physical violence and 61 percent to verbal abuse.

Torture & Stress Positions

Al Mezan and the human-rights coalition document a torture regime that includes prolonged stress positions — shabeh, handcuffing and binding detainees in painful positions for extended periods — alongside electric shocks, water torture, the removal of fingernails with pliers (a 19-year-old had three fingernails pulled out during interrogation), dogs unleashed on detainees, sleep deprivation, blindfolding and forced cold-water showers.

Paramedic Walid al-Khalili, 35, described to PCHR being subjected to electric shocks, shabeh positions and water torture, and reported that two detainees died from torture — one in his own cell.

In an affidavit to Addameer, administrative detainee N.A., who has a heart condition, described being denied food for three days after 7 October 2023; attacked in his cell by Naqab Prison's "Keter" suppression unit, which set a dog on him (20 October 2023); denied his heart medication; and stripped naked and beaten by the "Yamaz" unit (26 October 2023).

Sexual Violence & Forced Stripping

Per testimonies gathered by Al Mezan, PCHR and Addameer, Palestinians abducted from Gaza were systematically forced to strip naked and be searched after men were separated from women and from children as young as 15 or 16, amid verbal and physical abuse of a sexual nature. Women and girls were forced to remove their veil in front of male Israeli soldiers (joint submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture).

Female detainee Z.S., a 51-year-old mother of five, testified that at Hasharon she was forced fully naked, ordered to squat in a "frog position" and open her legs repeatedly, photographed while naked, had her head slammed against the wall, and had a cup of liquid she believed was urine thrown over her — before being transferred to Damon Prison.

PCHR has documented testimonies of systematic rape and sexual torture from released detainees, alongside accounts of threats of rape and humiliating naked searches.

Humiliation & Degradation

In December 2023, Al-Haq, PCHR and Al Mezan jointly condemned Israel's torture and abuse of hundreds of arbitrarily detained Palestinians from Gaza — specifically documenting humiliation through forced nudity and the dissemination of detainees' images while in degrading positions.

PCHR has documented at least thirty cases of torture and ill-treatment from released Gaza detainees — among them children, women, journalists and people with disabilities — publishing more than ten of these testimonies. Across the sources, degradation tactics recur: forced nudity, blindfolding, detainees walked "as if dogs," and the public circulation of degrading images.

Solitary Confinement & Isolation

Al Mezan documented that around 1,650 Gaza detainees are held under Israel's "Unlawful Combatants Law" in total isolation from the outside world, at Nafha and Negev (Ketziot) prisons. The detainee N.A. recounted being held in isolation for about two weeks while his heart medication was withheld.

Isolation reaches children as well. DCIP documented that between 2016 and 2022, 178 Palestinian children were held in solitary confinement for two or more days during interrogation, for an average of 16.5 days.

The DCIP figures are a documented historical baseline (2016–2022) rather than a measure of escalation since 2023.

Denial of Family & Legal Visits

Al Mezan documented that at least 3,000 Palestinian residents of Gaza — women, children, the elderly, doctors, nurses, teachers and journalists — were taken into Israeli custody since the start of the military campaign, the overwhelming majority forcibly disappeared "without any access to lawyers, their families, or the International Committee of the Red Cross."

PCHR sent communications regarding 103 Gaza residents arrested since 7 October 2023 to the Israeli authorities — including the Military Attorney General Corps, the Anatot Detention Center and the Prison Service — and received no response on their status or whereabouts. The roughly 1,650 detainees held under the Unlawful Combatants Law remain cut off from the outside world entirely.

As of 21 March 2024, the coalition of Al-Haq, Addameer, PCHR, Al Mezan and WCLAC had documented the announced and reported deaths of 40 Palestinian prisoners or detainees since 7 October 2023 — a toll that has continued to rise.