Report: Abuse in Israeli Prisons So Bad One Is Called 'Graveyard'

The number of Palestinians dying in Israeli custody surged to nearly 100 since the start of the war in Gaza, according to a report published Monday by a human rights group that says systematic violence and denial of medical care at prisons and detention centers contributed to many of the deaths. The picture that emerges from the report by Physicians for Human Rights-Israel is consistent with findings by the AP, which interviewed more than a dozen people about prison abuses, medical neglect and deaths, analyzed available data, and reviewed reports of autopsies. Details:

• A former guard at the Sde Teiman military prison said that detainees were routinely shackled with chains and kicked and hit with batons, and that the facility had been dubbed a "graveyard" because so many prisoners were dying there. Guards were told by their commanders—who also participated in the beatings—that they needed to reduce the deaths.
• Of the 98 prisoner deaths PHRI documented since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that ignited the war, 27 occurred in 2023, 50 in 2024, and 21 this year, the most recent on Nov. 2. PHRI says the actual death toll is "likely significantly higher."
• Fewer than 30 Palestinians died in Israeli custody in the 10 years preceding the war, PHRI says. But since the war, the prison population more than doubled to 11,000. "The alarming rate at which people are killed in Israeli custody reveals a system that has lost all moral and professional restraint," said Naji Abbas, a director at PHRI.

• A former nurse at Sde Teiman said chains used to restrain many prisoners' arms and legs caused such severe wounds that some needed their limbs amputated. The army said prolonged handcuffing is implemented only in exceptional cases with "significant security considerations."
• Malnutrition was a contributing factor in at least one death, according to PHRI, leading to a 17-year-old boy dying from starvation. In September, Israel's Supreme Court ordered that more and better food be served to Palestinian inmates.
• Sariy Khuorieh, an Israeli-Palestinian lawyer from Haifa, spent 10 days in Megiddo prison and says he saw a 33-year-old man die after near-daily beatings. The night before he died, he screamed in pain for hours while in solitary confinement, said Khuorieh. When the guards opened the man's cell they beat him before summoning a physician who tried to revive him and then pronounced him dead.