DaysofPal- A report by the British newspaper The Guardian said that the scale of abuse, torture, and deaths among Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons mirrors the American Abu Ghraib prison scandal near Baghdad, demonstrating a similar display of violence and deliberate humiliation.
An Israeli soldier posted a photograph on social media earlier this month showing a Palestinian man from Gaza lying face down, wearing nothing but his underwear. The detainee was bound with ropes to a wooden board and an iron bar. The soldier captioned the image in Hebrew with the words, “Good morning.”
The Guardian said the photograph evoked the infamous images from Abu Ghraib, recalling deliberate humiliation, the sexual degradation of naked prisoners, and the practice of photographing abuse as a form of souvenir.
The newspaper stressed that such incidents are neither isolated nor limited to the current war, although their frequency has increased significantly since the conflict began. It argued that Israel’s longstanding use of administrative detention and documented abuse of Palestinian prisoners forms part of a broader system that has operated for decades, depriving Palestinians of fundamental rights while serving to intimidate, break morale, and impose a form of collective punishment.
The report also highlighted Israel’s longstanding policy of withholding the bodies of deceased Palestinians instead of returning them to their families for burial. Some bodies are buried in numbered graves inside closed military zones, while others are kept in refrigerated facilities.
Among them are roughly 100 Palestinians who died while in Israeli custody, with Israeli authorities providing no public explanation for the circumstances or causes of their deaths.
The newspaper also drew attention to the issue of missing Palestinians from Gaza. Witnesses have reported that Israeli forces detained many of them, yet their names and personal details were never officially registered. The Israeli human rights organization HaMoked classifies these cases as enforced disappearances and is working to determine the fate of nearly 2,000 people who are believed to remain unaccounted for.
Systemic Terror and Trauma
The Guardian said these cases offer a glimpse into a broader reality experienced by Palestinians under a system of repression that has produced deep and overlapping psychological trauma. The report argued that many Palestinians have come to feel that not only their lives but even their bodies after death remain under the control of the Israeli state.
It added that the institutional structures that enable such practices are alarming in themselves and also serve a psychological purpose by undermining personal autonomy and human dignity.
The newspaper further noted that many detainees are journalists, doctors, and members of Palestinian civil society organizations who play key leadership roles within their communities. Targeting these individuals, the report argued, extends beyond punishing individuals and carries a broader message aimed at weakening the foundations of Palestinian society and denying the existence of the Palestinian people.
The Guardian said many of these incidents have occurred in public view. Photographs and videos have repeatedly surfaced showing alleged abuse of Palestinian prisoners, including claims of sexual assault and images of detainees restrained in their underwear to iron bars.
Many of these incidents have been documented by human rights organizations, and some of the photos have been publicly praised by Israeli politicians and shared by Israeli soldiers on their personal social media accounts.
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