Union for Justice: The Israeli army rearrests former prisoners to abuse and humiliate them
18/12/2025 – Union for Justice Foundation
The Union for Justice Foundation stated that the Israeli army has begun implementing a new policy in the West Bank based on rearresting former prisoners and subjecting them to brutal assaults before releasing them.
The Foundation documented dozens of cases in which former prisoners—some only days after their release—were rearrested. These arrests were accompanied by severe beatings by occupation soldiers, leaving visible marks, bruises, and serious wounds on the bodies of the detainees.
The Foundation quoted a young man from villages west of Nablus, who was rearrested a week after his release, as saying that he was severely beaten on the head several times with a metal glove worn by one of the soldiers. This resulted in what he described as “a spot on the brain,” which affected his ability to walk and speak.
The Foundation also reported that another former prisoner was beaten in the face with rifle butts after being arrested from his home late at night, causing a broken nose and a deep facial wound. A third former prisoner sustained a fracture to one of his rib cage bones after being violently beaten by occupation soldiers.
Another former prisoner recounted that soldiers forced him to lie face down on the floor of a military vehicle while his hands were bound behind his back, with a “dog” beside him barking continuously until he was transferred to the Hawara military camp south of Nablus. Throughout the journey, one of the soldiers sat on his back.
The Foundation explained that all former prisoners who are rearrested for several hours and then released are bound with plastic ties tightened excessively around their hands, leaving deep wounds on their wrists. They are also forced to sit in painful positions (hands behind their backs and faces pressed to the ground).
These arrest operations are often accompanied by raids on the homes of released prisoners in the early hours of dawn, terrorizing residents, searching and vandalizing homes, stealing money and gold, using obscene insults, and issuing threats of killing and liquidation should the released prisoners resume their activities.
The Union for Justice Foundation stressed that such actions by occupation soldiers cannot be classified as rare or isolated incidents, but rather as premeditated decisions by the army leadership and the Israeli Shin Bet, aimed at inflicting physical and psychological harm on former prisoners, with no security justification.
The Foundation added: “This new policy implemented by the Israeli army against released prisoners is an extension of a series of violations practiced against prisoners in occupation prisons, foremost among them systematic torture that can reach the level of rape, the denial of family and Red Cross visits, in addition to starvation, overcrowding in cells and sections, medical neglect, and deprivation of winter clothing, blankets, and cleaning and personal hygiene supplies.”
On Tuesday (16/12/2025), the spokesperson for the Israeli Prison Service claimed that the measures implemented in prisons under the leadership of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir were successful and contributed to deterring Palestinian prisoners, asserting that there is no intention to change the conditions of detention for so-called “security prisoners.”
The Union for Justice Foundation warned that the continued tightening of restrictions on Palestinian male and female prisoners and the denial of their rights guaranteed under international law will lead to an increase in the number of martyred prisoners and those suffering from serious and chronic illnesses from which recovery is difficult.
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