WhenRepressionBecomes Routine

The statement is from Muhannad Abu Ghosh of Physicians for Human Rights Israel, in an Associated Press report published by The Times of Israel on Oct. 15, 2026. His organization and the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel say they have documented 22 cases of inmates being shot with rubber bullets.

The AP said it did not independently confirm the 22 shootings. It reviewed files provided by Physicians for Human Rights Israel, including statements inmates gave to their lawyers and medical reports, and spoke with two former inmates who said they had been shot.

He was released from Naqab (Ketziot) in recent months and spoke to Haaretz. He was shot with a rubber bullet in April and had surgery only upon his release, Haaretz reported.

The incident began, Haaretz reported, when the wing’s management ordered prisoners who were in the yard to enter a crowded cell that held about 40 prisoners. Ten minutes later, a Prison Service unit entered the cell.

The prisoners were packed one on top of another in a corner, on their knees, with their hands on their heads, he said. His back was to the door. He suddenly heard shots and felt pain in his left leg. At the same moment, he heard prisoners screaming in pain. He estimated that the shots came from close range, no more than two meters away.

Haaretz reported that Physicians for Human Rights Israel and the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel documented 21 rubber-bullet shooting incidents. The Associated Press reported that the two organizations documented 22 cases of inmates being shot. The reason for the difference is unclear. According to the AP, “One of these inmates is Israeli; the rest are Palestinian.”

One case appears in a document from the Prison Service’s medical center. A prisoner was hospitalized at Soroka after being hit by a rubber bullet at Naqab (Ketziot) in July. He underwent surgery for internal fixation of a fracture in his left shinbone, Haaretz reported.

The medical file of a prisoner from Megiddo prison shows he was shot in October of last year, Haaretz reported, causing bleeding in his right thigh. In February, he fell on the same thigh when guards broke into his cell. He was found to have a fractured pelvis and to need a full hip replacement. The medical record provided by the Prison Service says the fracture was caused by his fall.

In August, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel and Physicians for Human Rights Israel wrote to three officials: the attorney general, the Prison Service commissioner and the service’s legal adviser at the time, Haaretz reported. According to the AP, the letter urged the Prison Service to end behavior the organizations called “widespread” and “unlawful.”

The organizations argue that the way rubber bullets are used goes beyond Prison Service orders on the possession and use of weapons. Under those orders, a guard may fire only in a few scenarios. Sari Bashi, executive director of the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, told the AP that Israel’s prison regulations allow guards to use weapons only when facing imminent risk.

According to the testimonies, Haaretz reported, the shots were fired at close range, sometimes in the yard or while prisoners waited for a lawyer, and often without any riot beforehand. In one case documented by Physicians for Human Rights Israel, a prisoner at Ofer who had not been treated for scabies refused to go from the yard back into his cell until he was given medication. In response, according to the organization, he was shot and a Taser was used on his head.

Merav Ben Ze’ev, a lawyer who heads the legal department at the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, told Haaretz that although the phenomenon is widespread, it is hard to persuade prisoners to file complaints about it.

The Prison Service’s legal department answered the August letter from Physicians for Human Rights Israel and the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel only two months later, Haaretz reported. It said there was no basis for ordering a blanket halt to the use of these means. It also said there was no justification for the organizations’ demand for details of the means and ammunition in use, their characteristics and their rules of operation.

In the Prison Service’s reply, Haaretz reported, decisions to use “less lethal” means are made according to operational need, after an assessment of the level of threat, the characteristics of the scene and the danger posed.

The AP reported that the service’s legal adviser, responding to the August letter, said it saw no reason to stop using rubber bullets in “measured” and “appropriate” ways. The reply said the Prison Service is committed to the safety of its prisoners.

The Prison Service did not respond to the AP’s request for comment on the rules governing the use of rubber bullets, or on whether rubber bullets have been fired at close range.

In its statement to Haaretz, the Prison Service also said it acts toward security detainees in accordance with the law and under constant judicial review. All detainees in its custody, it said, are held in accordance with the law and receive the rights and treatment the law requires.

More than half of the minors held in Prison Service facilities in 2025, the vast majority of them Palestinian, were held in isolation at least once, Haaretz reported. The figures come from the Prison Service’s reply to a freedom-of-information request filed by the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel and Parents Against Child Detention. The youngest were five boys aged 13 to 14. Isolation usually lasted seven consecutive days, and sometimes two weeks.

Isolation was used 666 times, and 154 minors were isolated more than once. Ninety-two percent of the minors placed in isolation had not been sentenced.

Under the Prison Service commissioner’s order, isolation means holding a prisoner in a cell without other prisoners and without the possibility of leaving it, including for a daily walk in the open air. The order makes no distinction between adults and minors. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child prohibits holding children in isolation, Haaretz noted.

Israeli forces arrested Bushra al-Tawil, a journalist, on Feb. 5, 2026, at the Ein Sinya military checkpoint near Ramallah, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. On Feb. 12, she received a four-month administrative detention order. On June 11, her lawyer from the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society told the committee that the Ofer Military Court had extended it by four more months.

She is from al-Bireh and had been released in January 2025 in a prisoner exchange, WAFA reported. Palestinian prisoner institutions describe her as the daughter of administrative detainee Jamal al-Tawil.

Her isolation began at Damon prison and continued at Neve Tirza, then at Ohalei Oz in Beersheba, according to Palestinian prisoner institutions. On Oct. 7, they said she had been moved to Ohalei Oz after 46 days of continuous isolation, and that a lawyer from the Commission of Detainees’ and Ex-Detainees’ Affairs had asked many times to visit her before being told of the transfer.

On Oct. 12, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society said her administrative detention had been renewed for another four months. It said, citing information from a visit, that the Prison Service continues to isolate her and to subject her to beatings and abuse. On Oct. 18, the society said she remains in isolation at Ohalei Oz.

Rasem Obeidat, 67, a father of four from Jabal al-Mukabbir, is a correspondent and senior commentator for the newspaper Al-Quds, Haaretz reported. He was arrested at his home on Sept. 27, 2026, according to the Wadi Hilweh Information Center.

Police asked to extend his detention by eight days on suspicion of conspiracy and membership in a terrorist organization, Haaretz reported. A Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court judge found reasonable suspicion but extended it by only three days.

He appealed to the District Court and, on the judge’s advice, withdrew the appeal. During that hearing, the judge hinted to police that unless they submitted new evidence, they would have to release him within two days. The next day, instead of filing another request to extend his detention, Defense Minister Israel Katz signed a six-month administrative detention order, according to Haaretz.

On Oct. 13, the Jerusalem District Court heard the request to approve the order. Part of the hearing was held with only one side present, as Shin Bet officials showed the judge classified evidence, Haaretz reported. The court upheld the six-month order with no indictment filed against him, Arab48 reported. He was being held at the Moscobiyeh interrogation center in West Jerusalem, the Wadi Hilweh Information Center said that day.

Haim Hadiya, his lawyer in the administrative proceeding, said the liberty of an elderly man with complex health problems, a father and a grandfather of 12, was being taken away with a stroke of the pen and without admissible evidence. His family said he has diabetes and is not receiving the medical treatment he needs in detention.