The Guardian: Torture and death have become a common scene inside Israeli prisons

The British newspaper «The Guardian» said that torture and death inside Israeli prisons and detention centers are no longer exceptional incidents, but have become part of a repeated and documented reality, amid what it described as a clear decline in attempts to conceal violations from public opinion.

The newspaper pointed out that a recent image of a Palestinian detainee, blindfolded, restrained, and in a humiliating position, recalled the images that emerged more than two decades ago from Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and became a global symbol of torture and humiliation inside detention centers.

It added that the seriousness of the image is not limited to the humiliating treatment it shows, but extends to the fact that it was published by one of the soldiers, reflecting a degree of habituation to documenting violations and dealing with them without a clear fear of accountability.

Human rights organizations said that the image is consistent with accumulated testimonies provided by Palestinian detainees regarding beating, starvation, humiliation, denial of treatment, sexual violence, and detention in harsh conditions.

The newspaper sees that these facts cannot be dealt with as isolated individual acts, in light of the repeated testimonies and the increasing number of deaths inside prisons, and the detention of Palestinians for long periods without charges or trials.

The article highlighted the case of Palestinian doctor Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza, who remains detained without trial, amid warnings of deterioration in his health condition and exposure to ill-treatment and denial of proper medical care.

The newspaper said that targeting Palestinian doctors, journalists, and community figures does not only affect the detainees themselves, but extends to weakening the institutions on which Palestinian society depends and keeping families in a constant state of fear and uncertainty.

The article also criticized the limited international reactions to repeated reports of torture and deaths inside detention centers, considering that silence or mere expressions of concern allow violations to continue and undermine the rules of international law.

Human rights organizations confirmed that the humiliating treatment of detainees may amount to torture or war crimes, calling for independent investigations, ensuring access for lawyers and doctors to detainees, and revealing the fate of the missing.

In contrast, Israeli military authorities said that publishing the image violates instructions and approved standards, and announced the opening of an investigation into the incident, but they face ongoing criticism regarding the slowness of investigations and the rarity of actual accountability in cases of violations against Palestinians.

«The Guardian» concluded that the images that appear from time to time are only a limited window into a broader system of violations, warning that the normalization of torture and death inside prisons represents a serious collapse of the legal and humanitarian guarantees that are supposed to protect detainees.