Rights group warns of skin disease outbreak among Palestine detainees in Ofer Prison

The Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs has raised alarm over the rising threat of skin diseases, particularly scabies, among Palestinian prisoners, warning that it poses a serious risk to their lives.

According to Wafa news agency, this has led the Israeli Prison Services (IPS) to close several prisons to lawyer visits due to the outbreak.

In a statement, the Commission voiced concern about the rapid spread of the disease at Ofer Prison, where minors are imprisoned, including painful pimples, boils and severe skin irritation, which have appeared on the detainees’ bodies, causing sleeplessness due to intense itching and discomfort.

The Commission urged the World Health Organisation (WHO) to take immediate action, especially for minors, as unsanitary conditions, lack of hygiene products and inadequate access to cleaning supplies have turned the prison environment into a breeding ground for disease.

Moreover, Ofer Prison detains the majority of minor prisoners, with 150 minors out of a total of 260 prisoners. The Commission highlighted the lack of concern for their young age and vulnerability, noting that, instead of being protected, they are subjected to additional suffering by Israeli soldiers.

It further stressed the dire living conditions in the prison, pointing to ongoing punishment, beatings, starvation and deprivation, all of which are severely destroying the prisoners’ mental and physical health.

It comes after lawyers representing Palestinian detainees in Israel’s Ofer Military Court announced a strike last week due to the “humiliating” treatment of defence lawyers, including preventing them from reaching the court by car and forcing them to walk.

The Prisoners’ and Freed Prisoners’ Authority and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club said in a joint statement that this measure adds to a series of obstacles imposed on the prisoners’ lawyers by the Israeli Occupation regime whether in courtrooms or during their visits. They explained that legal teams have been facing major challenges in following up on prisoners since the beginning of Israel’s war against the Palestinians in Gaza.

According to the two organisations, since 7 October 2023, Israel has restricted the work of lawyers by preventing them from visiting prisoners at the beginning of the war and later deliberately declaring a state of emergency when the lawyers arrived at the prison and using that as an excuse to cancel the visit.

Since the beginning of the Al-Aqsa Flood operation on 7 October, and amid the ongoing genocide and comprehensive aggression against the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank, Israeli Occupation Forces have arrested more than 10,700 Palestinians in the West Bank, including Jerusalem.

The Occupation Forces continue to escalate their arrest campaigns in the West Bank, a systematic policy aimed at suppressing any rising resistance. These arrests are also a key component of the collective punishment policy frequently employed by the Occupation in its targeting of Palestinians.

READ: Palestinian lawyers strike in protest against ‘humiliating’ treatment in Israeli court