Israel uses scabies to torture inmates: Palestinian group

The Israel Prison Service uses scabies as a tool of torture against Palestinian detainees, the Palestinian Prisoners' Club said Tuesday.

“Scabies has emerged as one of the most significant health issues affecting prisoners, with visible effects on their bodies when they are released. Medical tests have confirmed that they suffer from other health problems as a result,” it said in a statement. “The Prison Service use scabies as a means of harassment and torture, transforming the right to medical treatment over decades into a tool of abuse.”

The group cited an unnamed prisoner released from the Israeli Ramon Prison, who reported that “the prison administration classified his section as 'zombie' due to the effects of the scabies on their bodies.”

“The majority of released prisoners suffer from health issues, including chronic problems that require medical follow-up,” it said.

The Palestinian Prisoners' Club shared pictures of prisoners released Tuesday, after completing their sentences, who showed “visible changes in their appearance due to what they endured from systematic crimes perpetrated by the (Israeli) occupation, specifically medical crimes and starvation, alongside the fundamental crime of torture.”

Among those released was a 15-year-old boy named Iyad from the Shuafat refugee camp in East Jerusalem, who was freed in extremely poor health due to scabies.

Since last Oct. 7, the number of Palestinian prisoners from the occupied West Bank, including Jerusalem, has exceeded 11,300, according to Palestinian records.

Tensions have been high across the occupied West Bank amid an Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 42,400 Palestinians, mostly women and children, since last October.

At least 756 Palestinians have been killed, and nearly 6,250 injured in the occupied territory during the same period, according to Palestinian sources.

The situation continues to escalate following a landmark opinion by the International Court of Justice on July 19, which declared Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land unlawful and demanded the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.