For over 29 years, Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association has documented the systematic use of torture by the Israeli occupation regime against Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israeli prisons and interrogation centers. Despite the absolute prohibition on torture under international law, Israeli Occupation Forces routinely employ physical and psychological torture, along with degrading and inhumane treatment, against Palestinian detainees. Such practices begin with the violent arrest of Palestinian detainees, who are often brutalized and beaten, and escalate during interrogation[1] when detainees are subjected to various forms of torture, including physical assaults, beatings, positional torture, and psychological torture. Torture and ill-treatment persist, beyond interrogation, as a staple condition throughout Palestinian prisoners’ incarceration in Israeli prisons and detention centers.

Addameer alone documented more than 25 attacks in the Israeli prisons throughout 2020. During these attacks, the special forces shackle the prisoners, often physically assaulting them without any regard to their medical conditions and using tear gas and pepper spray, along with a plethora of other tactics to further abuse them. More often than not, the prisoners report sustaining grave injuries due to the brutality of the attacks.

"The units closed all the windows in every room, along with the door slot used to bring in food. We immediately knew that they were going to launch gas.”

"“Despite everything we did, the soldiers tried to push through the mattresses using long batons. When they failed to dislodge the mattresses, they launched a large canister of gas (known among the prisoners as “the poisonous powder gas”) into the room from beneath them. Once it was clear that we were worn out, they emptied another canister; half an hour later, they launched a third one. We started screaming then because we thought prisoner Ali Jaradat, 65 years old from Ramallah, died as he had lost consciousness from inhaling all that gas. This attack was different. Normally, when the special forces raid the rooms and gas us, they would disperse oxygen minutes later in fear of a prisoner dying from gas inhalation. This time they didn’t care and never circulated oxygen.”"

"and kept all the prisoners bound until the following morning; we were uncuffed at 6 in the morning."

"The systemic practice of torture and ill-treatment constitutes grave violations of the Fourth Geneva Conventions and its additional protocol of 1977, as well as the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court."

"Israeli military courts display a significant dependency on the discretion of the Israeli government and intelligence agencies, which has effectively transformed the judicial system into a tool of the occupation to legalize Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights."