RAMALLAH, (Palestine Foundation Information Center), Palestinian detainees from the Gaza Strip held in the Rakevet section of Israel’s Ramla Prison are subjected to repeated assaults involving beatings with batons, tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets and stun grenades, according to the Asra Media Office (AMO).
The reported attacks have caused injuries and burns to some prisoners’ hands and legs, raising serious concerns about their safety, particularly those who are sick or already wounded.
In a statement issued Tuesday, the AMO said the assaults take place regularly on Fridays and Saturdays, when the section’s supervisor is absent, adding that prison guards continue their attacks without measures to prevent them or hold those responsible accountable.
The AMO reported that the latest assault, carried out Friday, targeted Room 15, where prisoners were beaten with batons and police dogs were brought into the room.
It said the incident was part of a continuing pattern of raids on prisoners’ cells and physical abuse of detainees.
The statement also pointed out that prison guards take detainees into a room without surveillance cameras before assaulting them, making it difficult to document the abuse and increasing concerns for their safety.
The latest report follows a series of testimonies published by the AMO in recent weeks detailing similar violations in the same detention section.
On September 14, the AMO reported that Gaza detainees were taken into rooms without cameras and beaten while their hands and feet were restrained and their eyes blindfolded.
According to the testimonies, the assaults included blows to prisoners’ genitals, practices the AMO described as “physical and sexual torture.”
On September 19, the Asra Media Office reported another pattern of abuse in which guards allegedly singled out one prisoner from each room for beatings and torture while using gas and rubber bullets against other detainees.
The repeated reports suggest a continuing pattern of assaults inside the Rakevet section, according to the AMO.
The abuses come amid broader concerns over detention conditions in Israeli prisons, where reports of physical mistreatment have been accompanied by deprivation of basic necessities.
In February, the Palestinian Prisoner Society warned that detainees were being subjected to systematic starvation and torture, describing their detention conditions as among the most dangerous in the history of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement.
Concerns have also intensified over prisoners’ health. In June, Palestinian prisoners’ organizations appealed to the World Health Organization (WHO) to intervene over the spread of scabies among detainees, warning that the disease was compounding their suffering alongside reported physical abuse.
The AMO called on human rights organizations and international bodies to intervene urgently to stop the assaults in the Rakevet section and ensure the protection of detainees.
It also demanded that independent monitoring organizations be granted access to the prison to document violations, that injured detainees receive appropriate medical treatment, and that those responsible for torture and abuse be held accountable.
