In a Harrowing Testimony by Detainee Bilal A'jarmeh The Smell of Death Hangs Over Palestinian Detainees in Israeli Jails

In a Harrowing Testimony by Detainee Bilal A'jarmeh

The Smell of Death Hangs Over Palestinian Detainees in Israeli Jails

May 13, 2025

Amid agony and oppression, behind iron bars and forgotten by the world, Palestinian detainees endure unbearable conditions. Hunger gnaws at their stomachs, strange diseases devour their bodies, and the deliberate neglect by Israeli prison authorities turns every day into a battle for survival.

Since the onslaught on Gaza began on October 7, 2023, the situation inside Israeli prisons has sharply deteriorated. Severe food shortages, squalid living conditions, and systematic medical neglect have left detainees' bodies frail, unable to resist even the most minor illness. Diseases, many of them previously unseen, have spread rapidly, finding in the detainees’ weakened bodies a fertile ground to flourish.

Twelve detainees share a single, tiny container of yogurt for the day. Driven by starvation, they are forced to eat spoiled food unfit for human consumption. Many are so weak and can barely move their lips. According to testimonies, the famine in the prisons has become more severe than even the infamous famine in Somalia. Detainees have no means to wash their eating utensils; the prison administration provides no cleaning supplies or replacements. Those taken on prison transport (the "Bosta") often remain without food for days.

As for sleep, if they can sleep at all, it is on bare foam mattresses—no blankets, no proper bedding. Some detainees, suffering from severe skin diseases, find their flesh sticking to the foam. Since the Gaza war, unknown illnesses have emerged, sweeping through prison cells like wildfire.

One chilling account comes from Bilal A'jarmeh, 44, from the town of Silwad. Detained since 7 September 2003 and currently held in Israel’s Janot Prison, A'jarmeh spoke to a lawyer from the Commission of Detainees Affairs during her visit:

“I’ve spent decades in prison and seen many diseases, including scabies. But what we’ve experienced recently is different, it’s something else entirely.”

Describing his personal ordeal, he said:
“About a year ago, I was infected with what they now call ‘Scabies’, but this wasn’t like anything we’ve seen before. Boils formed inside my knees, causing severe swelling and excruciating pain. The prison administration offered no treatment. Fellow detainee Hussam Shaheen would press the boils daily to drain the pus, three full cups a day.

I suffered in agony for four straight months under the watch of the jailers, and not a single painkiller was offered. My weight dropped from 160 kg to just 60 kg.”

Though now recovered, A'jarmeh still suffers from lasting pain.
“What’s alarming,” he adds, “is that the symptoms differ from one detainee to another, even when we’re in the same room. Some detainees emit an unbearable odor from their bodies. The situation defies imagination, it is more horrifying than words can describe.”

Many detainees wear the same undergarment for over a year. Each owns just one set of clothes, with no cleaning products available. If they attempt to wash their clothes with water, they must lie in bed until the garment dries before putting it back on.
A'jarmeh said he had to sew his torn underwear with a piece of wire, and he’s still wearing it more than a year later. He has no alternative.

Humiliation is a daily routine. “We die a thousand deaths each day,” one detainee says, “when they curse us and our families. The insults and degradation, sometimes, death seems more merciful than the humiliation.”

If the detainees survive these conditions and live to tell their stories, they will recount tales soaked in blood and pain, stories of abandonment, of facing death alone, like a wounded horse trapped between the hammer of oppression and the anvil of suffering.

If they speak, will the world listen? And if they fall silent forever—who will carry their truth?