RAMALLAH, (The Palestine Foundation Pakistan)
A Palestinian human rights center warned on Tuesday of a rapidly worsening humanitarian situation inside Israeli prisons in the south, particularly in Negev Desert facilities, as a new wave of cold and rain exposes prisoners to freezing temperatures and life-threatening conditions.
Many detainees have reported numbness and near-frozen limbs amid a total absence of heating or winter clothing for more than two years.
In a statement, the Palestine Center for Prisoner Studies said the detention camps in the Negev, Nafha, and Ramon prisons, including newer facilities created during Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, such as the Sde Teiman prison, now hold nearly half of all Palestinian detainees. The center described current conditions as “extremely harsh.”
Temperatures have dropped to near zero, while rainwater has seeped into sections of the prisons, damaging the few personal belongings detainees still possess.
Severe suffering inside the Negev prison
Riyad al-Ashqar, director of the center, noted that the Negev prison is the hardest hit. It holds more than 2,500 prisoners, many in tent-based sections directly exposed to flooding. He said Israeli occupation authorities have banned winter blankets and clothing, and new detainees arrive with only the clothes they were wearing at the moment of arrest.
Conditions have worsened further under the directives of Israel’s far-right minister of national security Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has ordered banning hot water for prisoners.
Al-Ashqar said detainees were already facing extreme restrictions and mistreatment, but the current cold wave has dramatically intensified their suffering and increased the risk of winter illnesses, including flu, persistent cough, and high fever, amid a total absence of medical care and a two-year ban on herbal remedies like chamomile and sage, which prisoners previously relied on in the absence of proper treatment.
Prisons unfit for winter
The center stressed that the prison infrastructure is wholly unprepared for cold weather. Prisoners are forced outside early in the morning for what Israel calls “security inspections,” a practice that further deteriorates their health.
The group called on international human rights organizations to urgently intervene, form independent committees to inspect the prisons, and pressure Israeli occupation authorities to reinstate family visitation programs suspended for more than two years.
The Palestine Center and other rights organizations warn that the conditions inside Israeli prisons are part of a broader policy of “collective punishment” imposed on Palestinians, urging immediate international action before the humanitarian crisis inside these facilities reaches irreversible levels.
