Scabies outbreak spurs more suffering for Palestinians in Israeli prisons

Ramallah, occupied West Bank – Hundreds of Palestinians in Israeli prisons are suffering from a severe outbreak of scabies skin disease due to increasingly inhumane and unhygienic conditions towards detainees, particularly since the war on Gaza began.

Scabies is a parasitic infestation in which mites burrow and lay eggs below the surface of the skin, causing swelling, intense itching and fluid-filled blisters. The contagious disease is rare in developing countries, and usually only manifests in overcrowded places with levels of poor hygiene. It spreads through direct contact, and if not treated, can lead to complications such as heart disease, blood infections and kidney issues.

That is exactly what happened to Morshed al Shawamreh, a 25-year-old Palestinian man who was released from Israel's Ramon prison in the Naqab desert eight days ago.

"I have infections in my kidney, liver and my blood," Shawamreh told TRT World.

Though he has had to make multiple trips to the hospital for care since his release, he noted that his health situation is "nothing compared to that of my cellmates."

Inhumane policies

The primary reason for the outbreak of scabies among hundreds of Palestinian prisoners is Israel's violation of their most basic rights. These include the right to a change of clothes, to time outside of their cells, to shower, to access medical care, as well as to have adequate amounts of food, water, and hygienic products for laundry, cleaning and showers.

"We were not allowed to leave our cells for the first six months of the war. We had no soap or detergent to wash our clothes properly. Even if we washed our clothes, we had no way of drying them because we weren't allowed outside. We would wear our clothes wet and they smelled extremely bad. The humidity in our clothing is what caused the disease," Shawamreh said.

This took place in winter, amid the freezing temperatures of the southern Naqab desert.

"The occupation is using scabies disease as a method of torture, affecting hundreds of prisoners," Amany Sarahneh, spokeswomen for the Palestinian Prisoners Society, told TRT World. "Instead of fixing the issue, prison authorities are intentionally making it worse."

One testimony of a former prisoner severely infected with scabies told Sarahneh that the prison guards shackled his blister-filled hands and pulled them through the small opening of the cell door.

"He told me that the entire prison heard him screaming that day."

Ibrahim Abu Saffiyah, a 29-year-old Palestinian man who was released in August following two years in Israeli prisons had a similar story to tell. Also infected with scabies, he told TRT World that he was barred from showering for 40 days straight.

He said that in the Naqab prison alone, where he was being held, some 700 detainees out of 2,400 total prisoners had the disease when he was released.

"We were 10 males in my cell, six of them were infected. I caught the disease two weeks before I was released. We would itch 24 hours a day and the boils on our skin would pop. It was torture."

From his home in the village of Beit Sira, west of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, Abu Saffiyah explained how he would "feed his fellow inmates" with his own hands because theirs were so badly infected that they could hardly use them.

Inhumane conditions

International standards for prisoners mandate that detainees must have at least 30 minutes to an hour in the open air each day, which is crucial for mental and physical health. But immediately after October 7, Israeli prison authorities placed a blanket ban on any time outside for thousands of Palestinian political detainees across multiple prisons in what rights groups have called collective punishment.

"After the first six months (of the war), they started to give us one hour a day outside our cells. But more often than not, they would decide not to let us out. We would get an average of three hours outside per week instead of seven," Shawamreh said.

At Ramon prison, prisoners would be allowed only a little time per day to collect water to be used for drinking and bathroom needs.

Meanwhile, while the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) states that there should be at least four square meters of living space per prisoner in a multiple-occupancy cell, the situation for Palestinian prisoners is severely below that standard.

The cell that Shawamreh lived in in the Naqab prison was about 18 square meters (6x3m) and included three bunk beds. Under international standards, the cell is built to house between four to six prisoners. Shawamreh's room however, had 12 people, with half of them sleeping on mattresses on the floor.

Severe overcrowding in prison cells is also one of the main reasons for the outbreak of scabies, as Israel has stepped up mass arrests across Gaza and the occupied West Bank in the past year. The disease has been identified in many prisons including the Naqab prison, Nafha, Ramon, Ofer, Megiddo, and Gilboa among others, according to former prisoners and rights groups.

No treatment

"It was very difficult and the prison guards refused to give us medication," Abu Saffiyah added.

Some former prisoners told TRT World they received treatment creams, but without being able to disinfect beds, sheets and clothes, the treatment was useless and the disease quickly returned.

Allowing scabies to form, banning medical treatment, and refusing to properly eradicate the disease inside prisons are just the latest in a series of inhumane measures by Israeli officials against Palestinian detainees over the past year. Evidence of severe torture and mistreatment has been mounting, with rights groups warning of war crimes.

Alongside dozens of testimonies from freed prisoners and lawyers, a United Nations report released months ago detailed a range of horrific torture methods, including: electric shocks to the body, even on the genitals; waterboarding; forcing detainees to defecate in diapers; burning them with cigarettes; giving them hallucinogenic pills; sexual assault and severe beatings; along with depriving them of food, water and medical care.

A number of female and male detainees were also raped, including with sharp objects and even fire extinguishers. Other reports from Israeli whistleblowers working at military camps said some detainees had to have their arms and legs amputated due to prolonged shackling.

Since October 7, at least 60 Palestinian prisoners from the occupied West Bank and Gaza have died or were killed in Israeli custody. This includes people who were beaten to death and others who died through torture or from the denial of urgent medical care.