More than a quarter of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons have recently contracted the skin disease scabies due to the failure of prison authorities to take preventive measures to halt its spread.
According to Haaretz, the Israeli Prison Service admitted, in response to a petition filed by human rights organizations, that “approximately a quarter of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons have been infected with scabies in recent months.”
The Supreme Court of Israel is set to review the petition, which asserts that the prison authorities neglected necessary measures to prevent the outbreak.
Widespread Outbreak Amid Neglect
The outbreak has occurred against the backdrop of mounting prisoner complaints regarding inadequate medical care and severe overcrowding. The deteriorating conditions are exacerbated by the ongoing genocidal war against Gaza since October 7, 2023.
Reports indicate that Israeli prisons house approximately 10,000 Palestinian detainees. According to the petition, scabies-infected prisoners have been denied meetings with their lawyers, and court hearings have been postponed without valid medical justification. These practices, activists argue, constitute a violation of prisoners’ rights.
Human Rights Organizations Speak Out
The petition was submitted by several prominent organizations, including:
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- Physicians for Human Rights – Israel
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- The Association for Civil Rights in Israel
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- Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel
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- HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual
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- The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel
The petition includes records of dozens of military court sessions that were canceled under the pretext of isolating scabies-infected detainees. However, attached medical opinions refute the claim that quarantine is a medically necessary treatment for scabies.
Prison Service’s Admission and Deflection
In its response to the petition, the Israeli Prison Service stated that “there is no policy to prevent infected prisoners from meeting their lawyers or postponing court sessions due to scabies.” However, it admitted that certain meetings and hearings were delayed at the Nafha and Ramon prisons.
As of now, approximately 1,704 active cases of scabies have been reported in major outbreak centers, including Megiddo and Ktzi’ot prisons, as well as the prison complex housing Nafha and Ramon. While the number of infections at Nafha and Ramon has decreased, this improvement came only after the implementation of medical guidelines in September when the outbreak reached a critical stage, quadrupling the current figures.
Contradictions in Addressing the Crisis
The Prison Service attributes the outbreak to “the large number of new detainees from Gaza and the West Bank who were infected prior to their arrival.” The service claims to have taken steps to address the outbreak, including purchasing medications and washing clothing at high temperatures.
However, Physicians for Human Rights – Israel, in a statement earlier this month, refuted these claims. It reported that “prison wings lack washing machines, cleaning supplies are insufficient, and many prisoners have no access to dermatologists.”
Arrests Surge Amid Genocide in Gaza
The scabies outbreak is part of a broader humanitarian crisis tied to the Israeli occupation’s actions. Since the beginning of the genocidal war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, the occupation forces have escalated arrests in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
In Gaza, the Israeli military has detained an unspecified number of Palestinians amid the ongoing war, which has resulted in over 149,000 Palestinian casualties, including thousands of women and children. Tens of thousands remain missing as the war brings about mass destruction, starvation, and one of the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophes.
