Once muscular and strong, Palestinian bodybuilder Mojaz Obeit’s nine months in Israeli custody left him unable to walk without assistance following his release in July. Then, in a pre-dawn raid on his home in October, soldiers detained him again.
Before being arrested again, the 37-year-old father of five was diagnosed with severe PTSD by Bethlehem Psychiatric Hospital, related to his time in Israel’s remote Ketz’ot prison, according to medical notes from the hospital seen by Reuters. According to, a public clinic in the occupied West Bank.
The notes said Obeit suffered “physical and psychological violence and torture” in prison and described symptoms including severe anxiety, isolation from his family, and avoidance of discussion of traumatic events and current affairs.
Alleged abuse and psychological harm inflicted on Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons and camps is in renewed focus amid efforts by international mediators in December to secure a ceasefire in exchange for the release of thousands of prisoners detained in the Gaza war and before. may be released. For Israeli hostages held by the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza.
In the event of the release of detainees in any future deal, many will “require long-term medical care to recover from the physical and psychological abuse they suffered,” said Kadoura Fares, head of the Commission for Palestinian Detainees and Ex-Detainees. Said. Affairs, a government body in the West Bank. Fares said he was aware of Obeit’s case.
For this story, Reuters spoke to four Palestinian men detained by Israel since the war began following Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023. All were detained for months, accused of being affiliated with an illegal organization, and released without being formally charged or convicted. Of any crime.
All described lasting psychological scars, which they attributed to the abuse, including beatings, sleep and food deprivation, and prolonged restraint in stressful conditions during their time inside. Reuters could not independently verify the conditions in which they were held.
Their accounts are consistent with multiple investigations by human rights groups, which reported severe mistreatment of Palestinians in Israeli custody.
An investigation published by the UN Human Rights Office in August described confirmed reports of widespread “torture, sexual assault and rape, among cruel inhumane conditions” in prisons since the war began. The UN office also said that Hamas’ October 7 attacks may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The White House has described reports of torture, rape and ill-treatment in Israeli prisons as “deeply worrying”.
In response to Reuters questions, the Israeli military said it was investigating multiple cases of alleged ill-treatment of Gaza detainees by military personnel, but “categorically” rejected allegations of systematic abuse within its detention facilities. Gave.
The army declined to comment on individual cases. The Israel Prison Service (IPS), which falls under hard-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, and the country’s Internal Security Service said they were in no position to comment on individual cases.
“Israeli prisons provide supervised living conditions for terrorists and suitable housing for criminals,” Ben Gvir’s office said in response to Reuters questions. He said the facilities operated in accordance with the law. “‘Summer camp’ has ended,” Ben Gvir’s office said.
Tal Steiner, executive director of the Israeli rights group Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI), said the symptoms the men reported were common and can echo throughout victims’ lifetimes, often tearing their families apart. Let’s go.
Steiner said, “Torture in Israeli prisons has increased since October 7. It has and is already having a devastating impact on Palestinian society.”
Speaking from his hospital bed in July, a severely emaciated Obeit called the treatment meted out to him and fellow prisoners as “disgusting”, showing scars on his ruined legs and describing, without detailing, isolation, starvation, handcuffs and metal rods. Described the abuse.
Photographs of Obayyat taken before he was imprisoned show a man with a powerful build.
On 19 December, Israel’s High Court ordered the state to respond to a petition brought by rights groups regarding the lack of adequate food for Palestinian prisoners.
Israel has also reported ill-treatment of some of its 251 civilians held captive in Gaza following Hamas attacks. An Israeli Health Ministry report published Saturday said the hostages suffered torture, including sexual and psychological abuse. Hamas has repeatedly denied mistreatment of hostages.
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According to the Palestinian Prisoners Club, an advocacy group, Obeit is currently being held in a small detention center in Etzion, south of Bethlehem.
He is being held for six months under “administrative detention,” a form of imprisonment without charge or trial, the group said, and the official reason for his arrest is unknown. Israel’s military, Internal Security Service and prison service did not respond to questions about his specific case.
PCATI said at least 56 Palestinians had died in custody during the war, compared to only one or two annually in the years before the conflict. Israel’s military said it would launch criminal investigations into all deaths of Palestinians in its custody.
Based on court documents and data obtained through freedom of information requests, PCATI estimates that the number of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel and the West Bank has at least doubled during the war to more than 10,000.
During the war, about 6,000 Gazans have been held captive, the Israeli military said in response to a Reuters query.
Unlike Palestinians in the West Bank, who are held under military law, Palestinians from Gaza are held under Israel’s unlawful combatant law.
According to Professor Nev Gordon, an Israeli scholar specializing in human rights, this law has been used to keep people incommunicado, deprive them of their rights as prisoners of war or prisoners of military occupation, and hold them for long periods of time without charge or trial. To keep him in jail till the time. and International Law at Queen Mary University of London.
The Palestinian Prisoners Club compared the detentions to enforced disappearances.
Israel’s prison service declined to comment on the number of prisoners and deaths.
SDE Taiman Camp
Fadi Ayman Mohammed Radi, 21, a former engineering student from Khan Younis, Gaza, was one of two dozen Palestinians released at the Kerem Shalom crossing in Gaza on 20 August.
Radi described struggling to move his limbs after being handcuffed and chained for four months in Israel’s Sde Teiman military detention camp, officially a temporary prisoner sorting facility.
“They didn’t interrogate us, they destroyed us,” Radi said.
Located in the Negev desert, SD Teiman has been the site of serious abuses, including rape, according to whistleblower allegations among camp guards.
Israel is currently investigating what the United Nations has called a “particularly horrific case” of alleged sexual abuse in Sde Teiman in which five soldiers are accused of penetrating a detainee with rods that punctured her internal organs.
Reddy stated that he was repeatedly and arbitrarily beaten, permanently restrained and blindfolded, hung in a tension position and forced to sit on the floor without moving almost continuously .
At one point, he said he was deprived of sleep for five consecutive days in a place he said Israeli soldiers called a ‘disco room’ where loud music was played. He did not describe sexual violence.
Ready said he has trouble sleeping and even talking about his ordeal brings back memories of it all.
“Every time I say the word, I imagine torture,” said Radi, who was arrested by Israeli soldiers in Gaza on March 4.
Reuters could not independently verify their story. The Israeli military said it was unable to comment, saying it could not obtain Radi’s files because Reuters was unable to provide his ID number.
PCATI said that despite the government decision to phase out SD Taiman, the camp is still in operation.
OFFER and KTZ’IOT
Widespread abuses have also been reported in more established facilities, such as Ketziot prison in the Negev, and Ofer military camp south of Ramallah in the West Bank.
After collecting evidence and testimony from 55 former Palestinian prisoners, Israeli rights group B’Tselem released a report earlier this year accusing Israel of deliberately turning the prison system into a ‘network of torture camps’.
Using emergency legislation introduced after Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel, hardline minister Ben Gvir ordered the reduction of conditions for ‘security prisoners’, a category that almost entirely consists of Palestinians.
Human rights scholar Gordon compared the use of torture in Israel’s prisons to terrorism.
Gordon, who co-edited a book on abuses in the Israeli prison system, said, “Terrorism is generally an act that is limited in the number of people directly affected, but the psychosocial impact is dramatic. With torture. It’s the same.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
