Over the past year, the total prison population has risen significantly: from 16,353 on Oct. 6, 2023, to over 21,000 by June of this year, according to Israel Prison Service (IPS) data. Around half of them, approximately 9,900
at the time of writing, are defined as “security prisoners,” of whom
more than 3,300 are being held in administrative detention.
![Palestinian photojournalist Mo’ath Amarnih before and after a period of nine months in administrative detention in Israeli prison. (Courtesy)]( "Palestinian photojournalist Mo’ath Amarnih before and after a period of nine months in administrative detention in Ktzi’ot prison. (Courtesy)")
Palestinian photojournalist Mo’ath Amarnih
before and after a period of nine months in administrative detention in
Ktzi’ot prison. (Courtesy)
With this sharp spike in the prison
population, conditions inside Israeli jails have worsened drastically.
For 11 months, inmates — who have faced torture and abuse that has resulted in the deaths of at least 18
prisoners — have been restricted to a single item of clothing and
barred from purchasing shampoo or soap, with limited access to showers
and fully deprived of laundry facilities. The suspension of family
visits, moreover, has eliminated the possibility of receiving clean
clothes, sheets, and towels from outside.
On July 16, a coalition of five Israeli human rights organizations submitted a petition
to the Israeli High Court, demanding urgent intervention from the IPS
and the Health Ministry to address the alarming scabies outbreak
plaguing Palestinian prisoners, primarily those in security units. Inmates, it says, are often denied medical care, and doctor visits to prisons have become increasingly rare.
As dermatologist Dr. Ahsan Daka noted
in the petition, scabies can be effectively treated, but containing the
outbreak requires sanitary living conditions. The failure of the IPS to
do so suggests that the spread of the disease among prisoners has become, in effect, a part of their punishment.
‘I came out of hell’
In May 2023, 38-year-old Mohammed
Al-Bazz from Nablus was arrested and placed in administrative detention
in Ktzi’ot prison in the Naqab, without being told why. He had
previously spent more than 16 years in Israeli jails going back to the
age of 17, but those experiences paled in comparison to what was to come
after October 7.
Shortly after the Hamas-led assault on southern Israel, the Knesset passed legislation enabling National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir to declare a state of emergency in Israeli prisons. He had already started rolling out
a harsher vision for incarcerated Palestinians upon taking office
earlier last year. Still, armed with the new wartime emergency measures,
he quickly moved to over-crowd IPS facilities and further slash the
rights of Palestinian detainees.
![Newly appointed Israel Prison Service chief Kobi Yaakobi and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir at a ceremony at the National Security Ministry in Jerusalem, May 27, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)]( "Newly appointed Israel Prison Service chief Kobi Yaakobi and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir at a ceremony at the National Security Ministry in Jerusalem, May 27, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)")
Newly appointed Israel Prison Service chief
Kobi Yaakobi and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir at a
ceremony at the National Security Ministry in Jerusalem, May 27, 2024.
(Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Al-Bazz, who was released in May of
this year, received little news about the outside world. The first thing
the IPS did after October 7 was remove radios and televisions, cut off
all electricity, and limit prisoners to just one hour of water per day,
collectively. “Imagine 15 prisoners in a cell that gets water for only
one hour through a faucet and a toilet, and you have to use it for all
your needs,” he told +972.
Like all prisoners, he was prohibited from leaving his cell; no longer were they afforded the usual hour outside. Laundry
rooms were closed and converted into additional cells, and family
visits were forbidden, preventing inmates from receiving new clothes
from the outside.
“The sun and air did not touch my
skin for eight months,” Al-Bazz said. “I slept on the same mattress
without sheets or a pillow, showered in cold water without shampoo or a
towel, and had to put my dirty clothes back on my wet body in the winter
and summer. This shows a systematic intent to spread the disease among
the prisoners through poor hygiene.”
The first case of scabies was
reported to Physicians for Human Rights – Israel (PHRI) in mid-February,
according to Naji Abbas, director of the NGO’s prisoners and detainees
department. That prisoner, Mohammed Shukair, had been violently arrested
in May and then given a prison shirt that he told PHRI was already
dirty. Symptoms of the disease soon started to appear on his skin, and
he was taken to the prison clinic and diagnosed.
PHRI demanded the prison services
provide him with medications, and he was given an ointment to treat the
symptoms. But his environment was not disinfected and his cellmates were
not treated, so it didn’t work. “Ointment alone isn’t enough, because
the mites that cause the disease live on surfaces for up to 36 hours and
the person can be reinfected,” Abbas explained.
Al-Bazz also told +972 that when a
prisoner showed symptoms of scabies, the IPS did not remove him from the
cell or take any other measures to prevent the spread of the disease
among his cellmates. “They even moved infected prisoners to cells that
had healthy prisoners and caused everyone to become infected,” he said.
![People seen at Ofer prison, occupied West Bank, August 27, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)]( "Soldiers and Palestinians are seen at a waiting area outside Ofer prison, occupied West Bank, August 27, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)")
Soldiers and Palestinians are seen at a
waiting area outside Ofer prison, occupied West Bank, August 27, 2024.
(Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
“It is the worst disease, nothing
like I’ve ever seen,” Al-Bazz continued, his voice stricken with grief.
“It starts with small skin pimples that spread all over your body and
you develop an unbearable itching. I bled all over my body from the
continuous scratching. If you ask to go to the prison’s clinic, they
spray you with tear gas [as punishment] or take you outside to beat you
in front of all the cells.”
Al-Bazz told +972 that he didn’t receive any treatment for scabies throughout his entire year in Ktzi’ot; indeed, security prisoners have reported that there is no access to prison clinics or doctors for any medical conditions. “Under
the pretext of the ongoing war, the [prison] authority deprives even
cancer patients of crucial treatments for months,” he said.
Like Amarnih, Al-Bazz was nearly unrecognizable when he came out of prison: he had lost
60 kilograms of weight between October and May. He quickly sought
medical care upon his release, but because he was still carrying the
disease, he unintentionally infected his wife and twin babies.
Even as the scabies slowly disappears
from his body, the torture Al-Bazz experienced in Ktzi’ot will have a
lasting psychological impact. A particular incident on a cold night on
Oct. 22 captures the horror: according to Al-Bazz, the guards stripped
the prisoners naked, handcuffed their hands and bound their feet, before
a guard urinated on them.
“Most people are embarrassed to
detail what we went through,” he said. “Many prisoners were raped with
various objects; female guards watched, laughed, and toyed with our
naked bodies. They took pleasure in torturing and humiliating us.
It reminded me of Abu Ghraib, or even worse. They continuously beat us
all day, taking turns from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.. I cannot believe what they
did to us. It will remain forever etched into my memory. I came out of
hell.”
![Mohammed Al-Bazz before and after spending a year in administrative detention in Israel's Ktzi'ot prison. (Courtesy)]( "Mohammed Al-Bazz before and after spending a year in administrative detention in Israel’s Ktzi’ot prison. (Courtesy)")
Mohammed Al-Bazz before and after spending a year in administrative detention in Israel’s Ktzi’ot prison. (Courtesy)
‘They saw guards who were infected’
According to PHRI, scabies has broken
out across most Israeli prison facilities. “Lawyers say that in some
prisons, when guards bring prisoners to meet with them, they are seen
wearing gloves so as not to come into direct contact with the
prisoners,” Abbas said. “We don’t have clear data, but prisoners said
that they saw guards who were infected with the disease.
“The prison services claim that the
disease was brought into prisons by those arrested from Gaza, which is
not true because Gaza prisoners are separated from the rest of the
prisoners,” Abbas continued. “And even if this was the case, this is not
about who brought the infection into prisons — it is about what can be
done to end the current outbreak.”
But rather than improving prison
conditions, reducing overcrowding, and effectively treating the scabies
epidemic, the IPS is further restricting outside visits. In a joint
statement on Sept. 3, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club and the Committee
of Detainees Affairs (CDA) noted that the IPS informed their lawyers
that scheduled visits were canceled in Nafha and Ramon prisons, without
specifying a period, under the pretext of imposing a quarantine on all
sections of the prisons to control the spread of the disease.
“Court sessions after October 7 are
generally held via Zoom,” Jameel Saadeh, the head of the legal unit at
CDA, told +972. “For prisoners with scabies, the sessions are either
canceled or the court holds the sessions without the prisoners.”
When +972 contacted an IPS
spokesperson for comment, they denied the cancellation of outside visits
and did not comment on the current spread of scabies in prisons.
Meanwhile, Al-Bazz is still coming to
terms with the extent of the dehumanization he faced during his time at
Ktzi’ot. “Prisoners are human beings,” he said. “They are not
superhumans who can endure anything; they simply have to put up with
abuse because they have no other option.
“We are locked up over an honorable
cause and we are fighting for our freedom,” he continued. “But at the
end of the day, I’m flesh and bones, with dignity and emotions — a human
being that gets tired and feels pain when beaten and feels despair when
sick.”
