OMM Newsroom
Two Israeli human rights organizations said they had received at least 22 testimonies from prisoners and detainees who reported being shot and seriously injured by prison guards. Most of those who gave accounts were Palestinians.
The findings were published in a joint report by Physicians for Human Rights–Israel and the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel. The organizations said most testimonies had been collected over the past year and described guards firing projectiles identified by prisoners as rubber, plastic or sponge bullets.
Twenty-one testimonies came from Palestinian prisoners and one from a Jewish prisoner. The accounts included incidents in which guards allegedly fired at close range and inside cells, leaving prisoners with little room to move away or take shelter.
The groups documented cases at several prisons and detention facilities, including Ofer, Ganot, Ketziot, Gilboa, Megiddo, Nitzan and Eshel.
One case involved a 45-year-old Palestinian prisoner who was transferred to Soroka Medical Center in June after being shot with rubber bullets. Medical records said he had injuries to several parts of his body, including his testicles, and required surgery to remove his right testicle after it was completely ruptured.
In another case, a prisoner suffered a fracture to his left leg after being shot at close range. Medical records confirmed that he was transferred to Soroka Medical Center and underwent surgery to stabilize the fracture. The report also cited injuries to prisoners’ legs, abdomens, pelvises and hands.
Prisoners said they had been shot during raids by guards or inside prison wings and cells. Some said they had not received medical examinations after being injured or had been denied appropriate treatment.
A prisoner at Ofer Prison said he had refused to return to his cell to protest being denied treatment for scabies for months. He said guards responded by shooting at him and using an electric stun device on his head.
After documenting the cases, the organizations contacted the Israeli government’s legal adviser and senior Israel Prison Service officials, urging them to stop the “uncontrolled use of gunfire against prisoners”. They also called for disclosure of the weapons and ammunition used and the instructions governing their use.
The Israel Prison Service acknowledged using “less-lethal means” against prisoners but rejected the demand for a comprehensive halt to their use.
Muhannad Abu Ghosh, head of the prisoners and detainees department at Physicians for Human Rights–Israel, said shooting at prisoners was not new, but that its use had seen an “unprecedented escalation” in the recent period. He warned that the growing use of these means threatened prisoners’ lives and could cause permanent harm.
Merav Ben Ze’ev, head of the legal department at the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, criticized the service’s response. She said the committee was considering further action against the practice, which she said “endangered prisoners’ lives and constituted another means of torture”.
Around 9,350 Palestinians, including 350 children and 90 women, are being held in Israeli prisons, where human rights groups have reported widespread torture, starvation and medical neglect, contributing to dozens of deaths in custody.
