Palestinian NGO says 80% of prisoners in Israeli jails have scabies

Scabies epidemic and 'systematic policy'

The Palestinian Prisoner Society said Sunday that around 80 percent of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails suffer from scabies, including child detainees, citing accounts from inmates and recently freed detainees. The nongovernmental organization said its legal teams visited dozens of prisoners in October and early November, finding that severe clothing shortages and extreme overcrowding helped spread the parasitic disease while prisoners received inadequate treatment.

The society said the accounts pointed to a "systematic policy" of abuse, starvation and medical neglect across Israeli prisons. Prisoners told lawyers that special units from the Israel Prison Service entered wings with dogs and used rubber-coated bullets and unidentified weapons, with some reporting burns, temporary paralysis, broken teeth, fractured ribs and bruising from beatings.

Violence and medical neglect

The advocacy group presented testimonies from several Palestinian detainees at Negev Prison in southern Israel, saying their accounts reflected conditions elsewhere. One detainee, identified as A.B., said he suffered severed tendons in his hand during a raid and required surgery, while another identified as M.K. said several of his teeth were broken in an assault at Section 26.

Detainees also reported that prison authorities deliberately removed mattresses during the day, forcing them to sit on the floor or bare metal bunks, a practice that caused particular hardship for sick and older prisoners. In Section 25, a detainee identified as N.Y. described fear ahead of roll call or what authorities call a "security check," saying he had been beaten and left with bruises across his body.

Women detainees denied treatment

Women held at Damon Prison in northern Israel reported conditions including starvation, systematic repression and denial of rights, with authorities using access to health care as a means of humiliation. The society said prison officials continued to deny that women had scabies, attributing symptoms to allergies even though post-release tests confirmed the disease, as overcrowding worsened with rising detention numbers.

The society renewed its call for international human rights groups to end their continued inability to act "in the face of crimes committed by the Israeli occupation system against prisoners, aimed at destroying them physically and psychologically." According to the group, more than 9,300 Palestinians are held in Israeli prisons, including around 90 women.