Constant handcuffs and no showers: Gazans detail abuse in Israeli detention

Ofer Prison in the West Bank

Hagar Shezaf reports in Haaretz on 16 January 2025:

For A., the days are like a black hole. He doesn’t know where he is, where he has been taken, with whom he has been held and when all this will end. “Ever since I got here I’ve been blindfolded and my hands are cuffed all the time, even in the bathroom,” he was quoted in an affidavit obtained by Haaretz last month. “I’ve been sitting in a pen the whole time with about 50 people.”

A. is a Gazan who has been detained by the Israeli army since the end of October, when he was picked up in Jabalya in the northern Gaza Strip. He was taken to the detention facility at the Sde Teiman army base and then to the one at the Anatot base in the West Bank, east of Jerusalem. He says that during his detention he has been allowed to shower three times and change his clothes only once. Information about his fate has been provided zero times.

“We’re being abused at Anatot,” says M., another detainee there. “All day long we sit with our hands cuffed and our eyes covered. Soldiers are cursing us out the whole time. They let us go to sleep at midnight, and an hour later they wake us up and tell us to stand on our feet for half an hour. Then they let us go back to sleep and wake us up again an hour later, and so on all night long. We sleep for three hours, barely.”  In the morning, he adds, their thin mattresses are taken away and they’re left to sit handcuffed on the floor until the night.

Anatot is one of four military detention centers where more than 1,500 Gazans are being held in Israel and the West Bank, out of a total of 3,400, some of whom are being held at prison service facilities, according to figures provided in reply to a High Court petition filed in December by the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel.

Most of the Gazans detained during the war are being held in Israel under the law on illegal combatants, which enables imprisonment without trial of people suspected of taking part in hostilities against the state.   But it’s possible that the coming days will be the final days of these facilities. The assumption is that in the deal freeing Israeli hostages being held in Gaza, Gazan detainees – many who are being held without the benefit of criminal proceedings – will also be released.

To understand the high rate of detention of Gazans in recent months, it’s enough to look at the state’s reply to the Public Committee Against Torture. It said that between October and December alone, about 1,300 Gazans were detained during the military operation in northern Gaza.

Sde Teiman in the south is probably the best known – and most notorious – of the military detention facilities. Over the summer, after reports of inhumane detention conditions and a petition by rights groups to the High Court of Justice, the state announced that the detainees would be transferred, the state would build new detention areas at Sde Teiman, and there would be less prolonged handcuffing.

The state admitted, if not explicitly, that conditions at the facility did not reach the standards of either Israeli or international law. But it seems that what happened at Sde Teiman is now happening at Anatot.

The detainees have told lawyers that they are being held in what they call “cages” or “pens” – fenced-in areas that are not completely enclosed – something like military hangars or sheds for parking vehicles. From statements taken by attorneys Nadia Daqqa and Nadine Abu Arafeh from the HaMoked Center for the Defense of the Individual, it emerges that the detainees are handcuffed 24 hours a day, are blindfolded and do not know where they are. The detainees have also described grim sanitary conditions, crowding and violence at various stages of their detention.

A man incarcerated at Ofer complained that during his detention he lost 35 kilograms (77 pounds) and contracted scabies, an illness that spread extensively among Palestinian prisoners in Israel.
“Last night the handcuffs were especially tight,” J. said. “I asked the shawish” – a term used to describe a detainee the army appoints to work with it – “to loosen it a bit, but they didn’t agree. My eyes are covered the whole time; I’m apparently being held at Anatot. I think I was at Sde Teiman for about two weeks.”

He says that during his detention he has been allowed to shower only once. The army explains the harsh conditions by saying that the military detention facilities, especially Anatot, were intended for classifying and temporarily holding detainees taken during the war – until their release or transfer to the prison service. A number of IDF sources, including senior officers who have spoken with Haaretz recently, say the army does not want to hold the detainees itself; it believes that guarding them is not its role.

Israeli prison officers humilite Palestinian detainees in the security wing the Megiddo Prison, during a drill, in September 2024.

But the sources point to a problem: National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. Israel’s prisons in general are overcrowded at the moment due to the mass arrests of Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank, so the prison service too isn’t keen on receiving even more detainees. The minister responsible for the prison service is making the reception of additional prisoners difficult. The issue even came up in a letter from the attorney general to the prime minister; she wrote that Ben-Gvir is impeding the evacuation of Sde Teiman.

The detainees’ conditions are bothering the army, but that’s not the only issue. Sources in the IDF say that some of the people serving as prison guards are young conscripts, whom the IDF doesn’t want coming into contact with detainees suspected of terrorism.

Moreover, the army says that posting soldiers to guard detainees is a recipe for violence or other acts of revenge. An example is the abuse of a Palestinian detainee by soldiers of Force 100, a unit the army revived a year ago to guard detainees at Sde Teiman.

All this comes against the backdrop of the Sde Teiman affair, in which right-wing protesters, including lawmakers, stormed two army bases following the arrest of soldiers suspected of abusing a Palestinian detainee.

In an attempt to explain the conditions at Sde Teiman, the IDF said the prison infrastructure at Sde Teiman was below standard and therefore “preventive security measures” were necessary; that is, handcuffing. Following criticism from the High Court, at some detention facilities – among them Sde Teiman and Ofer – secured cells have been built instead of “pens.”

But at Anatot, the temporary situation remains as it was. And since the detainees have been at those improvised facilities for many months, the conditions are a long-term decree. Sometimes it has an expiration date – transfer to a prison service facility if a spot is found there, or release back to Gaza.  The latter scenario is not all that rare. During the war, thousands have been released back to Gaza, usually after no evidence of terror activity was found against them. After their return, they told the media about what they endured at Israeli detention centers.

This month the Association for Civil Rights in Israel asked the military prosecutor’s office to move the detainees at Anatot to proper detention facilities that would enable the conditions stipulated by law. The letter stated: “In light of what has been said in the testimonies, a comprehensive inquiry must be ordered into the conduct of the soldiers serving as jailers at the Anatot facility, above all to examine the conduct of the commanders there.”

Shackles and beatings
Most of the Gazans detained during the war are being held in Israel under the law on illegal combatants, which enables imprisonment without trial of people suspected of taking part in hostilities against the state. This law makes it possible to deny detainees the right to meet with a lawyer for up to 45 days and in certain cases 75 days, and only obligates a hearing before a judge 45 days after detention. Of the 3,400 Gazans currently being held in Israel and the West Bank, 500 have not met with a lawyer.

Masked Israeli soldiers protest at Sde Teiman military base in July 2024

Most of the detainees are initially held in Gaza, and from there they are taken to Sde Teiman, which is southeast of Gaza. After an interrogation, some of them are transferred to the other military detention facilities – at Ofer and Anatot in the West Bank or the Naftali base in the north.

The prisoners have told lawyers that violence occurs at every step of the way – during interrogations, at the detention facilities and mainly in transit. Haaretz has reported about an incident in which soldiers accompanying two detainees from Khan Yunis in southern Gaza are suspected of killing the two men; there were signs that they had been tied up and beaten on the head.

The statements are detailing more and more aspects not yet revealed in Israel. For example, there is the story of a Khan Yunis resident who says the violence began right at his arrest, when he was still with his family.

“They beat me on my head and I had a big wound on my forehead,” he said. “They took us to a truck and then to buses, where we were murderously beaten – all this while I was blindfolded and my hands and feet were tied.”  He says the detainees were first taken to a house in Gaza where they spent the night as the soldiers forced them to shout Am Yisrael hai – the nation of Israel lives.

Another description came from Y., a 34-year-old resident of Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza and a father of five. “On October 25 I was at work as a registered nurse at Kamal Adwan Hospital,” he said, adding that the army entered the hospital and asked everyone to move to a different wing, strip and remain in their underwear.

“They took most of the medical team, including me. They handcuffed us, blindfolded us and loaded us onto the back of a truck, and it drove off. Along the way there was a lot of violence. They ordered us to keep our heads down, and they beat us hard all over our bodies – with their hands and also with their weapons [rifles]. I had three ribs broken.”

The destination was Sde Teiman; Y. was taken for interrogation. “The interrogator hit me, and then he was replaced by somebody who also hit me – hard and a lot,” said Y., who was held handcuffed and blindfolded for 29 days. After that he was put into a cell with 20 other detainees; the handcuffs and the blindfold were removed and he could observe his situation.

The process that Y. describes – prolonged handcuffing and then transfer to a cell with many detainees – recurs in other accounts of detainees at Sde Teiman. The cell where they’re taken without handcuffs is made of concrete. Their eyes are not covered but they are not allowed to talk or change their clothes.  Y. said he had worn the same clothes for 50 days. A shower is a big deal, allowed once every two weeks. Sleeping on a bed isn’t guaranteed – there were only eight beds in the cell.

These descriptions paint a complex picture about the state’s obligation to improve detention conditions at Sde Teiman. In its response to the High Court at the end of August, the state declared that the opening of new detention wings will allow a shortening of the handcuffing phase to the first 96 hours after a detainee is brought in.

New cells have indeed been provided, but detainees say a long time elapses before they are taken to these cells, and until then, many of them are still in handcuffs for many days straight.

Following the court petition and other reports of conditions at Sde Teiman, IDF Chief of Staff Herzl Halevi appointed a committee to look into the situation at all military facilities, except Anatot, which at the time was not holding prisoners.

One member of the committee told Haaretz that at Sde Teiman and Ofer, improvements had been made adhering to the committee’s recommendations. At Ofer, he added, most detainees are not handcuffed, and those who are have been assessed as dangerous. This source and detainees say that prisoners have been moved to cells, about half of which have toilets.

Yet the detainees’ accounts suggest that there is still a long way to go until the promises are fulfilled and the undesirable phenomena are curbed. A., who is being held at Anatot, highlights a phenomenon that occurred at Sde Teiman around the end of October. He says that not only was he handcuffed and blindfolded there for two weeks, he and other detainees were tortured during their interrogations.

“I was in the ‘disco room’ for four days, during which I was questioned for an hour,” A. said. “They hit me there while I was still handcuffed.” The disco room is the Sde Teiman detainees’ nickname for an interrogation room where very loud music is played. According to several detainees, this soundtrack is accompanied by beatings from the soldiers doing the interrogating.

“I was exposed to very loud music for about eight hours,” said one detainee, who is a diabetic. “During that time my sugar levels soared.” Now he is at Ofer, and there is no dearth of accounts about what is going on there.

Equalizing conditions
“I have a gray sweatsuit that I’ve been wearing for four months now and I got to change my underwear once a month,” said one detainee who was held at Ofer not long ago. He added that after he was arrested he was attacked by the soldiers who had detained him and that he was handcuffed for about four months straight. He said that since his arrest, he was questioned only twice, for short periods.

In general, the detainees’ accounts indicate that there is no uniform handcuffing policy at Ofer– some detainees are handcuffed and some are not. But the impression emerges that in recent months the latter group has increased in size. For example, T. said that at the start of his detention he was handcuffed all day, but recently the handcuffs were removed.

The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit has said about Ofer: “As a rule, detainees are not handcuffed, except for specific cases in which handcuffing has been used due to considerable risk arising from a detainee.”

Regarding other issues, it appears that the reform that is allegedly on track has not happened. T., for example, said that for 15 days he wore the same clothes, including underwear. “Of the 21 detainees in the cell, seven or eight sleep on the floor, he said, adding that some of his cellmates have no shoes and some suffer from persistent itching.

The most common complaints about Ofer are about medical neglect. Another man incarcerated there complained that during his detention he lost 35 kilograms (77 pounds) and contracted scabies, an illness that spread extensively among Palestinian prisoners in Israel. Another detainee complained about untreated rectal bleeding that he said was the result of an attack by jailers when he was at Sde Teiman.

Amid these complaints, last month Physicians for Human Rights – Israel submitted 60 complaints by Gazans incarcerated at Ofer about the lack of medical care. Since then, the rights group has received further complaints, including one from a detainee whose legs were amputated. He said that during his detention, soldiers confiscated his prostheses – and never returned them.

Moreover, in recent months, Physicians for Human Rights has complained to the police commissioner about malnutrition at Ofer and included an opinion based on a menu provided by detainees. It states that the detainees consume less than 1,000 calories per day, compared with the recommended 2,000 for a male adult.

One issue that comes up in all complaints from all facilities is violence. “There are jailers who slap detainees just to have fun,” one detainee said, adding that he himself had not been struck, apparently due to his advanced age, but he has witnessed others being hit.

The committee member who spoke with Haaretz said that external supervisors – appointees including judges and prosecutors – have been allowed into the facilities, each of which has a clinic with medics.

He added that in the wake of the complaints about violence against detainees, cameras have been installed at the facilities. But the images do not always reveal the full picture, as shown in a leaked video in the Force 100 affair. In the video that purportedly documented an attack on a Palestinian, hardly anything is visible because the soldiers found a way to hide what they were doing.

“Ofer is the new Sde Teiman; they’ve only changed the name and the geographic location,” said attorney Nasser Odeh, who has visited detainees at the facility. “Detainees have told me that they have been wearing the same shirt and pants ever since they were arrested – we’re talking about nearly a year.”  Odeh adds that most of the detainees he has seen have been at Ofer for more than eight months; this includes many medical personnel who were arrested in attacks on hospitals. He says that even though the Israeli authorities are allowing lawyers to visit the detainees, in some cases when he arrived for a visit, he was told that there was “no indication” of the location of the man he was visiting.

This response could mean that the prisoner might have been transferred to another military detention facility, maybe to the Shin Bet security service, or maybe he was not being allowed to meet with a lawyer.

According to data the IDF provided for this article, during the war 46 Gazans have died in IDF custody, of them 21 at Sde Teiman, one at Anatot and one at Ofer. The IDF did not make clear where the others had died.

Of the dead among the Gazan detainees, the Palestinian Ministry of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs knows the identity of only 36. The army provided a few names when Palestinian families inquired about the location of a detainee, and some names were revealed in media reports or following court petitions.

In 24 cases the Palestinian ministry does not know exactly where the detainee died or in what circumstances. To this day, no indictments have been filed in any of the cases of detainees who died in the IDF’s custody, but in a number of cases soldiers have been questioned under caution – as possible defendants. According to sources in the military court system, there is little chance that indictments will be filed in those cases.

The Public Committee Against Torture has called for the immediate closure of the detention facilities. “The appalling numbers in the reply from the state to our petition prove that Sde Teiman has returned to full operation, as have other facilities like Ofer and Anatot, where thousands of new detainees are being held in inhumane and life-threatening conditions and are vulnerable to harsh abuse.”

According to Odeh, detainees have told him they have seen fellow prisoners taken away by soldiers in the middle of the night – then the screaming starts.

For its part, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said: “The claims are not accurate. The conditions at the detention facilities at Camp Ofer are suited to prolonged incarceration in orderly jail cells. As a rule, the detainees are not handcuffed, aside from specific cases when handcuffing is used when an individual poses a great risk.

“The detention facility at the Anatot camp is intended for temporary detention, and the IDF has been required to use it sparingly when large numbers of detainees have been taken in, and when detainees have not been taken in by the prison service. Given that this is a temporary facility, and that the detainees there are considered extremely dangerous, preventive security measures have been significantly used in order to save lives. It must be stressed that this is a temporary situation.”

The IDF added: “Upon reception into a military detention facility, the detainees are examined by a physician, and they are regularly evaluated medically. … The detainees receive suitable medical care in accordance with the law, and if needed they are transferred to hospitals for medical treatment.

“The abuse of detainees contravenes the law and IDF orders and is absolutely prohibited. The IDF rejects claims about the systematic abuse of prisoners, including with the use of violence. The detention facilities are continuously filmed and are under the supervision of commanders. Thorough external reviews are conducted at the facilities, whose conclusions are reviewed and implemented.

“Concrete complaints of inappropriate behavior by the detention staff and of inadequate conditions are passed on for review by the relevant authorities and are dealt with accordingly. As needed, the Military Police Criminal Investigation Division opens investigations when suspicion arises of deviant behavior that justifies this.”

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