American newspaper reveals the martyrdom of Palestinian prisoners in Israel due to "deadly violations"

The American newspaper, The Washington Post, revealed today, Monday, the martyrdom of Palestinian prisoners from the occupied West Bank and the interior, after being subjected to deadly violations in Israeli prisons since October 7, 2023.

The newspaper explained in a report that one of the "Palestinian prisoners was martyred due to a ruptured spleen and broken ribs after being beaten by Israeli prison guards, while another prisoner met a tragic end due to a chronic health condition that was not treated, while a third screamed for hours, asking for help, before he died."

The newspaper quoted eyewitnesses as giving details of the prisoners' deaths, and they were confirmed by members of the Physicians for Human Rights in Israel (PHRI) organization, who attended the autopsies, the results of which were shared with the families.

The three were among at least 12 Palestinians from the West Bank and Israel killed in Israeli prisons since Oct. 7, according to Physicians for Human Rights. An unknown number of prisoners from the Gaza Strip were also killed. The newspaper report quoted one prisoner as saying that guards attacked them “in a crazy way. They used their batons, they kicked us … all over our bodies.”

Rights groups say conditions in overcrowded Israeli prisons have deteriorated dramatically since the war on Gaza began. Former Palestinian prisoners described routine beatings, often inflicted on entire cells or sections, usually with batons and sometimes with dogs. They said they were denied adequate food and medical care and subjected to psychological and physical abuse.

While international attention and condemnation has focused on the plight of prisoners in Gaza — particularly at the notorious Sde Teiman military site — human rights advocates say there is a deeper, more systemic crisis in Israel's penal system, the Washington Post reported.

Tal Steiner, executive director of the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, attributed the abuses, in part, to the atmosphere of vengeance in Israel over the war in Gaza. “It’s a combination of very negative and violent individual sentiment, support from policymakers and a lack of accountability,” he said.

In a letter to prison authorities on June 26, the head of Israel’s Shin Bet security service, Ronen Bar, warned that conditions in the country’s prisons could lead to further international legal action. He stressed that his country “has difficulty in repelling the allegations against it,” and considered that “at least some of them are justified.”

The prison system, built to hold 14,500 prisoners, currently holds 21,000, the letter said, in addition to an estimated 2,500 from Gaza, most of whom are held in military facilities. “The prison crisis creates threats to Israel’s national security, its foreign relations and its ability to achieve its self-imposed war aims,” Bar concluded. But Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who oversees the prison system, has made no apologies for his “war” on Palestinian prisoners. In a July post on X, he boasted that he had “significantly reduced” shower time and introduced a “simple menu.” He argued that the simplest solution to prison overcrowding was “execution by shooting someone in the head.”

According to the Palestinian prisoners’ rights group Addameer, there were a record 9,700 Palestinian security prisoners being held in Israeli prisons in May. It said some 3,380 were being held in administrative detention, without charge or trial. The figures do not include prisoners from Gaza; Israeli authorities have not disclosed the exact number of prisoners or where they are being held.