Palestinian prisoners

Dr. Abu Shahada after his release from Israeli detention, January 2025. (Courtesy of Mahmoud Abu Shahada)

Beatings, diseases, humiliation: A Palestinian doctor’s year in Israeli jails

Held without charge, Dr. Mahmoud Abu Shahada faced months of physical and psychological abuse after his arrest in Israel’s raid on Gaza's Nasser Hospital.

By Ruwaida Amer February 18, 2025

A prisoner who was released as part of the ceasefire deal, in Beitunia, Jan. 20, 2025. (Oren Ziv)

Defying Israel, thousands celebrate prisoners’ release in West Bank

The first Palestinians freed in the ceasefire deal recounted brutal conditions inside Israeli prisons — as settlers rampaged through nearby villages.

By Oren Ziv January 20, 2025

Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya and Albina Abu Safiya. (Courtesy of the family)

Albina Abu Safiya: ‘The Israeli army deliberately targeted my husband’

Following Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya’s arrest in northern Gaza, his wife describes her fears over the hospital director's fate and the tragedy of their son's killing.

By Ruwaida Amer January 17, 2025

Latest

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

Palestinian photojournalist Mo’ath Amarnih upon his release from nine months of administrative detention in Israeli prison. (Courtesy)

In Israel’s prisons, skin diseases are a method of punishment

Prison authorities are allowing scabies to spread by restricting Palestinian inmates’ water supply and depriving them of clean clothes and medical care.

By Vera Sajrawi September 25, 2024

Soldiers prevent protesters from entering the Beit Lid military base, July 29, 2024. (Oren Ziv)

A riot for impunity shows Israel’s proud embrace of its crimes

Far-right protesters, soldiers, and MKs rallied for guards suspected of raping a Palestinian detainee. Once fringe, they’re now the public face of the state.

By Oren Ziv August 1, 2024

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

‘More horrific than Abu Ghraib’: Lawyer recounts visit to Israeli detention center

At Sde Teiman, Khaled Mahajneh found a detained journalist unrecognizable as he described the facility’s violent and inhumane conditions.

By Baker Zoubi June 27, 2024

Imad Sabi and Tamar Pelleg-Sryck in London. (Courtesy of the author)

In memory of an Israeli lawyer who never lost her moral purpose

Although she became a lawyer late in life, Tamar Pelleg-Sryck worked tirelessly to defend Palestinian detainees like me in a profoundly unjust system.

By Imad Sabi May 22, 2024

Prisoners seen at a courtyard in a prison in southern Israel, February 14, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

The writing was on the wall for Israel’s torture of prisoners

The government has ensured that horrific practices in sites like Sde Teiman can continue with impunity, in violation of international law and medical ethics.

By Janan Abdu May 14, 2024

Walid Daqqa at a hearing at Be'er Sheva District Court, January 23, 2018. (Oren Ziv)

Remembering Walid Daqqa, a prisoner with a ‘heretical belief in life’

Walid and I shared a political, personal, and philosophical correspondence for two decades. Even in death, he accompanies me on the path of truth.

By Anat Matar April 24, 2024

Israeli prison guards stand watch in front of a van with Palestinian convicts set to be released as part of a deal between Israel and Hamas, Ofer Prison, west of Ramallah, occupied West Bank, November 25, 2023. (Jamal Awad/Flash90)

‘It would’ve been better if they shot us’: Palestinians recount prison abuse

Newly released inmates detail cases of humiliation, torture, rape threats, and a prisoner beaten to death by Israeli forces in the weeks since October 7.

By Imad Abu Hawash December 8, 2023

Police arrest a Palestinian youth during a protest against a construction site for a new public park near Muslim graves, outside Jerusalem's Old City, October 29, 2021. (Jamal Awad/Flash90)

What Israelis won’t be asking about the Palestinians released for hostages

The list of Palestinians slated to be exchanged for Israelis should provoke reflection over the role of mass imprisonment in the occupation.

By Orly Noy November 23, 2023

Khader Adnan seen with his family in the West Bank town of Arraba, August 12, 2015. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

Why we Palestinians see ourselves in Khader Adnan

Those trying to undermine public anger over the hunger striker's death don't want to talk about the violent carceral regime that he struggled against.

By Amjad Iraqi May 5, 2023