abuse

Sahar Francis. (Courtesy)

PODCAST: What happens to Palestinians in Israeli prisons?

Sahar Francis has spent decades defending Palestinian detainees. She explains why Israel’s torture and abuse since October 7 is unlike anything she has seen.

By +972 Magazine August 28, 2026

Palestinian doctor Hussam Abu Safiya, captured and detained by the Israeli army in Gaza in December 2024 and still in detention appears via video conference for his Israeli Supreme Court hearing in Jerusalem, June 10, 2026. (Abeer Salman)

‘His only crime is that he is a Palestinian doctor’

Fourteen Gazan physicians remain in Israeli prisons without charge, where they say they have been singled out for particularly severe abuse.

By Shatha Yaish June 17, 2026

Journalist Samir Amin-Khuwaira of Nablus before and after spending nine months in administrative detention following a nighttime arrest at his home in April 2025. (Courtesy of the family)

The Palestinian journalists held in Israel’s ‘cemeteries for the living’

Held without charge in Israeli jails, West Bank reporters describe beatings, starvation, isolation, and threats meant to force them into silence.

By Basel Adra June 1, 2026

Latest

Illustration of an Israeli prison, January 21, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/FLASH90)

I represent a Palestinian woman in Israeli prison. Now I can’t reach her

Israel locked down its prisons at the start of the Iran war, barring almost all lawyer visits and leaving my client without a voice beyond her cell.

By Janan Abdu March 23, 2026

Israel Prison Service officers prepare Palestinian prisoners for release as part of a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas, at Ketziot Prison in southern Israel, February 26, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

‘I cannot help my clients’: The impossible task of representing Palestinian detainees

With Israel running its prisons as ‘torture facilities,’ lawyers point to the absence of state and judicial oversight allowing them to operate with impunity.

By Lee Mordechai and Liat Kozma January 27, 2026

PODCAST: Marwan Barghouti’s long walk to Palestine’s freedom

Arab Barghouti discusses the agony of not knowing if his father would be freed in the ceasefire or killed in his cell, and why Israel still sees him as such a threat.

By +972 Magazine January 8, 2026

Israel Prison Service officers prepare Palestinian prisoners for release as part of a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas, at Kteziot Prison, southern Israel, February 26, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

New data reveals 98 Palestinian deaths in Israeli custody since October 7

Post-mortems of the deceased and testimonies from former detainees suggest many died from torture, medical neglect, and food deprivation. According to a leaked Israeli intelligence database, dozens were civilians.

By Yuval Abraham November 17, 2025

Palestinian detainees from Gaza seen in a courtyard in a prison in southern Israel, February 14, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Israeli intelligence data: Militants account for only 1 in 4 Gaza detainees

A classified Israeli army database indicates that the vast majority of the 6,000 Palestinians who have been arrested in Gaza and held in appalling conditions in Israeli detention are civilians, a joint investigation finds.

By Yuval Abraham September 4, 2025

Palestinian prisoners held at Israel's Ofer Prison near Jerusalem, in the occupied West Bank, August 28, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

‘My hands are paralyzed from torture’: Gazans reveal horrors of Ofer Camp

Inmates at Israel's shadowy new facility face non-stop abuse — from deadly beatings and electric shocks, to constant handcuffing and skin diseases.

By Oren Ziv December 19, 2024

Closed shops in the West Bank city of Hebron as part of a strike following the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran, July 31, 2024. (Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90)

Israeli soldiers systematically abusing Palestinians in Hebron, report reveals

Whipped with a belt, beaten in the groin, threatened with rape: Palestinians recount a pattern of arbitrary attacks in the West Bank city this year.

By Oren Ziv December 9, 2024

Palestinian men detained by Israeli forces in Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip, are moved to areas near the beach, December 7, 2023. (Social media; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Inside Israel’s torture camp for Gaza detainees

Palestinians arrested in the northern Gaza Strip describe how Israeli soldiers systematically abused civilians and combatants alike, from severe deprivation to brutal physical violence.

By Yuval Abraham January 5, 2024

Pnina Pfeuffer speaking at B'nai Jeshurun in New York, February 4, 2020. (Gili Getz)

From J’lm to NY, Orthodox activists are mobilizing against sexual abuse

After harrowing allegations about a revered Haredi educator prompted a painful dialogue among Orthodox communities, two activists discuss the grassroots push for systemic change.

By Natasha Soffer-Roth February 2, 2022

Israeli soldiers search a Palestinian at an IDF checkpoint. (photo: Breaking the Silence)

Making sure Israeli soldiers stay above the law

Abusive soldiers evade justice under the aegis of the slow procedures, as well as some creative excuses. By Yossi Gurvitz for Yesh Din Several weeks ago, Yesh Din attorney Emily Schaeffer received responses from the Military Advocate for Operational Affairs Unit (MAOA) regarding two appeals she submitted years ago on behalf of a Palestinian complainant,…

By +972 Magazine May 14, 2014