DayofPal– Haaretz has revealed in an investigation that 2,874 Palestinian prisoners in illegal Israeli prisons have contracted scabies over the past year, with 1,704 of them still suffering from the infection.
The Israeli Prison Service (IPS) has been following hard policies that left nearly 25% of Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails with scabies, Haaretz added.
Human rights groups have filed a petition with Israel’s High Court, stating that the IPS has failed to contain the disease amid reports from former detainees about the filthy conditions, delayed medical care, and dismissive responses to their pleas for help.
Israeli rights groups, including Physicians for Human Rights and Adalah, say the IPS has ignored essential protocols to stop the outbreak, stressing that this neglect has led to the cancellation of military court hearings and legal consultations. The IPS admitted in court that scabies outbreaks caused those delays.
Overcrowding and harsh conditions in Israeli prisons have contributed to the outbreak of scabies, with the situation worsening during the Gaza genocide. Approximately 23,000 detainees are crammed into facilities meant for 14,500, exceeding capacity by 60%. Among them, 10,000 are Palestinian prisoners categorized as “security detainees.”
Murshid, a former detainee, said that ten prisoners were incarcerated in a cell built for six, with some sleeping on the floor, revealing that the IPS ignored requests to separate infected prisoners for two months.
“When we asked for help, they said, ‘You are terrorists and deserve to die.’ At first, they only gave us paracetamol,” Murshid told Haaretz.
Proper treatment came weeks later, and a dermatologist only examined the situation four months after the outbreak began, he added.
Rights groups say the IPS has failed to provide enough medical resources at a time prisoners report being denied access to laundry, dirty clothes, and insufficient dermatological care.
The IPS alleged it has set up a task force and started distributing medication and washing clothes at high temperatures, yet rights groups say these steps are too late and insufficient.
Shortlink for this post: https://daysofpalestine.ps/?p=59050
