Commission of Detainees’ Affairs: Gilboa Prison inmates endure escalating brutality and repeated raids

May 4, 2025

The Commission of Detainees’ Affairs reported today, Sunday, through its legal representative, that conditions inside Israel’s Gilboa Prison have become increasingly inhumane. The prison administration has been intensifying its crackdown on inmates, regularly storming their cells, beating them savagely, and subjecting them to violent assaults. Numerous inmates have sustained serious injuries, including fractured ribs, impaired vision and hearing, and severe abdominal pain resulting from repeated blows to the head, eyes, and abdomen.

On April 21, 2025, special units, accompanied by aggressive police dogs, raided several cells, mauling inmates with claws and leaving deep wounds and lacerations. A subsequent assault took place on April 28, when forces stormed Room 16 in Section 5 and brutally beat eight detainees in what was described as a frenzied attack.

The Commission’s lawyer further revealed that scabies is spreading rapidly among the prison population, yet no medical treatment is being provided. Some inmates are suffering from painful skin infections, and many are being further punished by being denied access to the prison yard and daily recreation.

Particular concern was raised regarding the health of Ibrahim Al-Ramadi, 23, from Sheikh Jarrah in Jerusalem. Al-Ramadi has long suffered from chronic migraines and a congenital heart condition involving fluid around the heart. Despite his urgent need for specialized medication, he has received no treatment since his arrest. He also had scabies several months ago, and his condition continues to worsen.

Another detainee , Nasser Ba’ara, 29, from Nablus, is reportedly suffering from broken ribs and extensive bruising across his body as a result of the beatings he endured during the latest crackdown.

• World Press Freedom Day: Israel Has Carried Out at Least 180 Arrests of Palestinian Journalists Since Start of Gaza Genocide

Commission of Detainees’ Affairs, Palestinian Prisoner’s Society, & Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association

Ramallah, Palestine - Israeli occupation forces have carried out at least 180 arrests among Palestinian journalists both in the West Bank and Gaza since the start of the genocide in October 2023, Palestinian prisoner defense groups said on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day marked annually on May 3.

Among the 180 arrests, 49 Palestinian journalists who were detained after the genocide began remain behind bars, in addition to six others who were arrested beforehand.

This period has been the deadliest in the history of Palestinian journalism. The Israeli occupation targets Palestinian journalists in a systematic policy of killings and arrests. According to the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, more than 200 journalists have been killed since the start of the genocide.

The targeting of Palestinian journalists—whether through assassinations or arrests—has historically been one of the main policies employed by the occupation, and it has escalated to an unprecedented level since the genocide began. The attacks on journalists have marked a critical and painful chapter in the history of Palestinian journalism, especially in Gaza. The occupation has not only targeted them while doing their journalistic work but has also systematically targeted their families. Many journalists and their families have been killed during the genocide as part of the occupation's retaliatory efforts. Families have been turned into targets and tools of intimidation and revenge in a continuous attempt to silence journalists and assassinate the truth and details of the genocide in Gaza.

Prisoner groups noted that the occupation continues to forcibly disappear Palestinian journalists Nidal Al-Wahidi and Haitham Abdel Wahid who were abducted from Gaza. Since October 7, the occupation has refused to reveal their fate - whether they are alive or not - despite efforts by numerous human rights organizations and ongoing demands for information. It is known that the occupation employed enforced disappearance broadly against detainees from Gaza. This persisted until certain legal amendments allowed the disclosure of detainees’ whereabouts in prisons and camps, but the practice has not stopped — with many detainees from Gaza remain forcibly disappeared.

Among the 49 detained journalists, 19 are being held under the so-called “administrative detention” policy without trial or charge. This policy has affected thousands of Palestinians in an ongoing attempt to impose greater control and censorship, depriving them of their right to freedom of opinion and expression, and preventing them from exposing the occupation’s crimes that permeate every aspect of Palestinian life. Many journalists have been subject to administrative detention — some have been released, while others remain imprisoned. One such case is journalist Nidal Abu Aker from Bethlehem, who has spent nearly 20 years in occupation prisons, most of it under administrative detention.

The occupation has transformed social media platforms and journalistic work from tools of free expression into tools of repression and pretexts for arrest, under the guise of so-called “incitement.” The occupation deliberately crafted vague definitions of “incitement and sympathy” without clear parameters, enabling it to use them as weapons against journalists in particular, and Palestinians in general, to imprison them on a mass scale.

Detained journalists face all the violations endured by other prisoners, including systematic torture, severe beatings, starvation, medical neglect, and continuous humiliation and abuse. They are held under harsh and degrading detention conditions and are continuously deprived of their rights.

Prisoner institutions renew their demands for the immediate release of detained journalists in Israeli prisons and for the disclosure of the fate of Gaza’s disappeared journalists. They also call on the United Nations and all international bodies to assume their responsibilities regarding the crimes committed by the occupation against detainees, and to move beyond merely issuing reports and statements by ending the systematic inaction in the face of the ongoing genocide and aggression.

Minor detainee Mahmoud Nimer Al -Ali

The administration of Damoun prison targets elderly women detainees

● International Workers’ Day: Palestinian Labor Workers Targeted by Israeli Occupation

May 1, 2025

Ramallah, Palestine - On the occasion of International Workers' Day, which falls on May 1 of each year, Palestinian prisoner defense groups highlight how the Israeli occupation has targeted Palestinian workers for decades, and that arrests and persecution constitute the most prominent oppressive policies pursued against them.

This is in addition to the fact that a large portion of the Palestinian prisoners who fought for the freedom of their land and people are from the working class. Over the decades, the occupation has furthered its policies to target them, deprive them of their rights, and impose increased control and oversight over their right to work and life.

The Commission of Detainees’ Affairs, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society, and the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association confirmed in a statement that since the beginning of the ongoing genocide, the occupation has escalated its targeting of workers and their persecution through arrests. The issue of Palestinian workers has become one of the most prominent and pressing matters, given the escalation of systematic crimes and violations against them, including arrests, persecution, and torture.

Thousands of Palestinian workers from across Palestine have been subjected to mass arrests and systematic crimes, as part of a policy of collective revenge that the occupation has escalated in an unprecedented manner, compared to previous periods when Palestine witnessed widespread popular uprisings against the Israeli occupation. We recall here the case of Gaza workers, thousands of whom were arrested after October 7 while working in the territories occupied in 1948. They were detained in harsh and oppressive conditions and subjected to systematic torture without trial or charge before the majority were later released. Several of these workers were martyred, while the occupation continues to impose the crime of enforced disappearance on others and refuses to disclose their fate.

The occupation has escalated its persecution and arrests of workers for entering the territories occupied in 1948 without permits, including in occupied Jerusalem. These arrests have been accompanied by various forms of assault and detention in harsh and difficult conditions. This is taking place amidst escalating policies of systematic oppression against our people, the isolation of governorates and towns from one another, the continued expansion of settlements, and the theft of Palestinian funds.

Prisoners' institutions renew their demand to all international human rights bodies at all levels to open an independent international investigation in light of the continued escalation of crimes and the war of genocide against our people in Gaza. They must work to put an end to the escalating and unprecedented crimes against prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons, and to restore the true and necessary role of human rights in the face of the brutality of the occupation, supported by international forces that ignore the entire human and humanitarian community and all the voices of free people in the world.

Detainees whose identities are known, who was martyred after October 7, 2023 in Israeli prisons

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Jailers in Damoun Prison intends to provoke female detainees

Detainee Faraj Ayyad Ibrahim

Palestinians Mark Prisoners’ Day Amid Ongoing Genocide for 2nd Year in a Row

Palestinian Prisoner’s Society, Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association

April 16, 2025 

Ramallah, Palestine – Amid Israel’s ongoing genocide, thousands of Palestinian political prisoners are experiencing the most severe forms of torture and maltreatment ever recorded since the beginning of the Israeli occupation, prisoner rights groups said today, on the eve of Palestinian Prisoners’ Day. 

In this report, Palestinian prisoner defense and advocacy groups lay out the key realities and figures surrounding the current situation for political detainees. The abuse of Palestinian prisoners has become yet another facet of the genocide which is taking place with full international complicity. 

The rise in systematic crimes practiced against Palestinian political detainees has lead to the direct and indirect killing of 63 identified prisoners since the genocide began, 40 of whom were arrested from the occupied Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, the occupation continues to withhold the bodies and identities of dozens of other Palestinian political detainees, leaving their families in the dark. 

Since the occupation of 1967, there have now been 300 identified Palestinian political prisoners who were martyred in custody, the last one being the 17-year-old child Walid Ahmad from Silwad who was starved to death in March 2025 as his autopsy showed. 

Israeli occupation authorities are using a myriad of horrific ways to kill and injure Palestinian prisoners at an unprecedented rate, with the most prevalent being severe physical assault, denial of medical care, starvation, and torture including sexual assault. 

For decades, prisoners have been in a constant and ongoing battle with their jailers to obtain and preserve the most basic rights that should otherwise be afforded to any detainee around the world. They managed to secure their rights through hunger strikes and other forms of protest, often paying for it with their lives, only to have them stripped away entirely since the start of the genocide. 

Testimonies and statements from prisoners in custody — relayed by legal teams and documented through released detainees — continue to reveal a shocking and horrifying level of systematic torture, especially in the accounts of detainees from Gaza. These testimonies, in addition to detailing acts of torture, also described unprecedented methods of humiliation designed to degrade human dignity. 

The entire international human rights system must view this as a new phase that threatens humanity as a whole, not just Palestinians.

It is important to remember that the Israeli government had already been inciting for the targeting of Palestinian political prisoners and implementing more oppressive policies well before the genocide began. The period before the genocide served as a prelude to the government's intentions, including blatant calls to execute Palestinian prisoners, led by the fascist minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who embodies the broader Israeli occupation system. He has openly called for the shooting of Palestinian detainees in the head as a way to "solve" prison overcrowding. 

This incitement reflects the reality that prisoners are currently living through, under a government carrying out the world’s first live-streamed genocide — and with explicit support from powerful international actors.

KEY FACTS AND FIGURES 

Since the beginning of the genocide, Israeli occupation forces have carried out at least 16,400 arrests across the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, including those who remain in custody and others who were later released. Among the 16,400, there were at least 510 cases of arrests among women, and 1,300 among children.

These figures does not include arrests carried out in the Gaza Strip, which are estimated to be in the thousands. This is due to the occupation’s ongoing crime of enforced disappearances against many detainees abducted from Gaza. Israel prevents the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) from visiting the detainees, and  withholds information about their numbers, places of detention, their conditions, or any details about their fate - whether they are dead or alive. 

In addition to its central prisons, the occupation has established a number of special military camps for holding detainees, particularly those from Gaza. Notable among those are the Sde Teiman military camp, which became infamous for crimes of torture and rape, as well as Rakefet prison, Anatot military camp, Ofer military camp, Naftali military camp, and Menasha military camp. These are the only camps that the prisoner groups have been able to monitor; there may be secret prisons and camps hidden from the public. 

Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation’s increased use of administrative detention (AD) - or holding residents without trial or charge - has become one of the most significant transformations of the period since the genocide. The number of Palestinians held under AD has reached a historic high of 3,498 people as of the beginning of April 2025, including over 100 children and four female prisoners. 

Before the genocide, the number of Palestinians held under this arbitrary order stood at approximately 1,320 people. The figure began to rise with the arrival of the far-right Israeli government in 2021, before the genocide. 

It is clear that since its occupation of Palestinian territories, Israel has used the policy of AD as an arbitrary measure against residents, with tens of thousands detained over the years. Alongside the rise in its use of AD, the occupation has escalated its arrests based on freedom of expression, using the pretext of “incitement" to detain many. Social media platforms have become a central tool for repression, surveillance and arrests. 

Medical crimes also weigh heavily on prisoners, particularly with the continued infestation of scabies skin disease, which has led to the martyrdom of prisoners. The majority of detainees suffer from scabies, particularly in the Naqab, Megiddo, and Ofer prisons, where the disease is increasing. Despite the disease arising over a year ago, occupation authorities continue to deny providing the detainees with basic hygienic products to disinfect their environment, as well as access to clean clothes, sun exposure and regular showers, all of which is taking place amid severe and unprecedented overcrowding in Israeli prisons. 

Meanwhile, the Israeli military assault on the northern West Bank continues for close to four months, with occupation forces continuing to carry out mass arrests accompanied by horrific acts against detainees such as extrajudicial executions, using residents as human shields and as hostages to pressure their family members to surrender. This comes alongside severe abuse including during sudden field interrogations, physical assault, international mass vandalism and destruction of detainees’ homes, theft of vehicles, money and jewelry, as well as threats of murder and abuse of detainees and their families, and widespread destruction of infrastructure and homes in Jenin and Tulkarem.

DATA AS OF EARLY APRIL 2025

• Number of Palestinian political prisoners: Exceeds 9,900 people, not including all the detainees abducted from occupied Gaza and are subjected to the crime of enforced disappearance.
• Females: There are currently 29 female prisoners, including one arrested from Gaza as well as one minor. 
• Children: There are around 400 Palestinian children held, distributed across Megiddo and Ofer prisons.
• “Administrative Detainees” (without trial or charge, applied to West Bank and Jerusalem residents): The number of administrative detainees in Israeli prisons has risen at an unprecedented rate since the beginning of the genocide, reaching over 3,498 administrative detainees (as of early April), including four women and more than 100 children. The majority of administrative detainees are former prisoners, in addition to other groups such as: school and university students, journalists, human rights activists, lawyers, engineers, doctors, academics, members of parliament, activists, workers, and first-degree relatives of martyrs and prisoners, including sisters of martyrs and wives of prisoners.
• “Unlawful Combatants” (without trial or charge, applied to Gaza residents): At least 1,747 residents of Gaza are being held under this arbitrary law as of early April 2025.
• The number of sick prisoners in Israeli prisons has also risen, with hundreds of sick and injured prisoners. Their numbers continue to grow due to the crimes and punitive policies systematically imposed by the occupation, the most notable of which are torture and medical deprivation. 

Palestinian prisoners’ institutions persist in urging the international human rights system to take decisive action to hold the leaders of the occupation accountable for the war crimes they continue to commit against our people. They demand the imposition of comprehensive sanctions on the occupation to isolate it on the global stage, thereby restoring the international human rights system to its rightful role in upholding justice and human dignity. This is essential to break the paralyzing inaction that has allowed the ongoing genocide and aggression to persist unchecked. The institutions also call for the immediate end to the exceptional immunity granted to the occupying state, which has consistently evaded accountability, judgment, and punishment for its systematic violations of international law. It is time to hold the occupation to account and ensure that its impunity comes to an end.

— ENDS