For Palestinians held within Israel’s prison network, torture, abuse and contempt for life isn’t just the norm, it’s the system.That’s according to report released this week [PDF] by the NGO Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHRI).Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listIn the report, PHRI reveals the details of at least 94 Palestinian prisoners killed while in Israeli detention. The true number is likely far higher, the report’s authors concede. All of those killed died from either torture, assault, wilful medical neglect or malnutrition.The report builds upon a tranche of evidence of abuse and torture published by a variety of human rights organisations, both inside Israel and internationally.“It’s not just [far-right National Security Minister Itamar] Ben-Gvir’s policy, it’s an Israeli policy directed against Palestinians in Israeli custody, in military and civilian deterioration facilities alike,” one of the report’s authors, Oneg Ben Dror, told Al Jazeera.Included in the testimonials [PDF] is the case of 33-year-old Abd al-Rahman Mar’i from the occupied West Bank, whose body – a latticework of bruises, contusions and fractures – was returned to his family after he died in Megiddo prison in November 2023.Another prisoner, 17-year-old Walid Khaled Abdullah Ahmad from Nablus, was returned to his family with his body having next to no muscle or fat remaining, despite his family saying that he had been an athlete before his arrest in September 2024. A post-mortem revealed that Walid died six months after his arrest, with post-mortem findings indicating he had suffered “severe and prolonged malnutrition”. Advertisement Yet another detainee, 25-year-old Arafat Hamdan from the occupied West Bank village of Beit Sira, only lasted two days in military custody before he died. A type 1 diab …
