Category World News

Torture, abuse, and contempt for life are not just the norm for Palestinians held within Israel’s prison network; they are also the norm.

According to a report released this week by the non-profit Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHRI) [PDF].

At least 94 Palestinian prisoners were killed while being held in Israeli custody, according to the report’s PHRI. The authors of the report acknowledge that the actual figure is likely much higher. All those who were killed perished from malnutrition, torture, assault, or willful medical neglect.

A number of human rights organizations have published a number of pieces of evidence of abuse and torture, both domestically and internationally, in the report.

Oneg Ben Dror, one of the report’s authors, told Al Jazeera, “It’s not just far-right national security minister Itamar] Ben-Gvir’s policy; it’s an Israeli policy directed at Palestinians both in Israeli custody and military and civilian deterioration facilities.”

The West Bank resident Abd al-Rahman Mar’i, 33, whose body was a latticework of bruises, contusions, and fractures after his death in Megiddo prison in November 2023, was included in the testimonials]PDF].

Walid Khaled Abdullah Ahmad, 17, from Nablus, was released from prison and returned to his family with next to no muscle or fat on his body despite his family’s claim that he had been an athlete prior to his arrest in September 2024. Walid passed away six months after his arrest, according to a post-mortem report that revealed his condition had “severe and prolonged malnutrition.”

Arafat Hamdan, 25, from Beit Sira, an occupied West Bank villager, spent just two days in military custody before passing away. Arafat, a type 1 diabetic, needed frequent insulin injections to maintain his health. Arafat’s death was the subject of brutal beatings and the withholding of his medication, according to witnesses.

hatred-related systems

According to testimony, official records, and extensive evidence gathered by PHRI and other organizations, there has been a never-before-seen assault campaign against Palestinians detained after Israel’s genocidal war against Gaza.

Since the start of the Gaza War in October 2023, it is thought that Israel has detained more than 18,500 Palestinians. Many of those have been the victims of routine abuse perpetrated by organizations like Human Rights Watch (HRW), B’Tselem (Israel), and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR).

Unknown numbers of people were taken as part of an Israeli policy of enforced disappearances in the first few months of the war, which Israel’s Unlawful Combatants Law legalized, in addition to the thousands whose detention has been documented.

Many of those who disappeared may no longer be alive two years later. “The Israeli military reportedly took hundreds of Palestinians from Gaza, of whom, according to reports, thousands are missing.” Many of them are no longer alive, according to Ben Dror, which raises questions.

Nearly the entire war has been alleged that Israel has been torturing its prisoners, including members of the UN. In its report on the Israeli prison system, B’Tselem outlined the physical, psychological, and sexual abuse perpetrated against Palestinians who were taken into Israeli custody in August 2024.

In blatant violation of international law, both PHRI and HRW have previously investigated the specific acts of the Israeli military against healthcare workers. Among other instances of brutal treatment were threats to cut off prisoners’ hands because they were “dentists,” and forcing doctors to bray like donkeys.

Israel has previously stated that it treats Palestinian prisoners in accordance with international law.

System of denial

Ben Dror’s account of the gang rape of a Palestinian man in the Sde Teiman military prison in July 2024, whose prosecution, if not actual murder, has divided Israeli society, is “the only case that has reached the Israeli public, but we are aware of many more.”

Delegates to a public hospital where a large number of people became aware of the case, “Sde Teiman was only reported because the injuries were so extensive,” she continued.

Israel hasn’t received much attention from any other reports of rape and sexual abuse committed against Palestinian prisoners, including the suspected, ultimately fatal, rape of Dr. Adnan al-Bursh in the Ofer prison in March 2024.

Instead, Israeli politicians who are in charge of the country’s prison system are self-assured enough to boast about ensuring that prisoners’ food is only served when they are “minimum of the minimum,” in contrast to a report released in July from the Palestinian rights organization Addameer that documented what researchers called the deliberate and drastic reduction in the amount of food and water given to prisoners.

According to Israeli political analyst Nimrod Flaschenberg, who refers to the well-known liberal Israeli news outlet Haaretz, “Haaretz tends to cover these things, but that’s about it.” However, if I examine the coverage provided for this most recent [PHRI] report, nothing is missing. That’s it, though, because a few individual leftist websites may have picked it up.

“People simply don’t know,” he said. He continued, “I’m not saying there would be a great moral outcry, but there would be something there,” he continued. “For the moment, statements like those made by Ben-Gvir about prison conditions are common. If they weren’t, he wouldn’t say them.

However, in spite of the mounting allegations of abuse in Israel’s prison networks, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz extended the restriction on inspection of its prisons until late October.

24 Nigerian schoolgirls are still missing after being abducted from their beds by armed assailants two days later.

Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro reported that eight underage rebel recruits were killed last week as a result of the Colombian government’s recent military offensive against a well-known armed group.

The news comes as Colombia’s armed groups have recently increased their recruitment of children, sparking a debate over whether forced recruits can be protected on the front lines.

President Petro confirmed that seven adolescents were killed on November 10 during a government bombing campaign in the southern Guaviare department in a Monday post on the social media platform X.

In a government offensive in the eastern region of Arauca, a second minor was killed three days later, on November 13.

At least 12 teenage fatalities were reported in under two months as a result of those deaths.

Petro, a former rebel, wrote in his post that “everyone of them was the victims of forced recruitment by criminals who have dragged them into hostilities and deprived them of protection.”

However, Colombia’s growing armed actors have increasingly sought to exploit minors, and the issue of how to protect young recruits is contentious.

a rise in child recruitment

Colombia has been at odds with right-wing paramilitaries, left-wing rebels, and criminal organizations for more than 60 years due to an armed conflict.

According to official government statistics, those organizations have attempted to rise in ranks by appealing to children under the age of 18 and, in some cases, coercing them into employment.

Between 2021 and 2024, the government estimates a 1, 000 percent increase in the number of new recruits.

In a UN report from June, the same uptick was found. According to its findings, 474 cases of armed groups recruiting or using minors were recorded between 2022 and 2024.

The office received reports of 118 more child recruits in the first quarter of 2025.

According to the report, some of the victims had as young as nine years old. Many of the indigenous communities in Colombia.

The most recent casualties come as Petro’s government intensifies its crackdown on the dissident group EMC, which split from the now-demobilized Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

The EMC is renowned for drawing on children to bolster its ranks, according to Elizabeth Dickinson, the think tank’s deputy director for Latin America.

She told Al Jazeera, “The EMC, particularly, is probably the organization that has historically been most resolute or guilty of recruiting minors.”

She explained that the organization deploys children around the perimeter of its commanders’ positions as “human shields.”

Petro is facing criticism.

Colombia has received criticism for how the government deals with military operations that could harm young recruits.

In 2026, Petro’s left-wing government is up for reelection, and the country is set for a crucial presidential election.

The opposition has already seized on the potential violation of international humanitarian law by killing young recruits.

Pedro Sanchez, the defense minister, has been given a motion of condemnation from the congress.

Some organizations have urged Sanchez to step down immediately, including Representative Katherine Miranda.

Miranda also issued an appeal to Petro on social media this week, “Face the country and stand up for the state crime you are committing against children who have been forced into recruitment”

According to Dickinson of the International Crisis Group, Petro’s most recent post might suggest that young recruits are not subject to international law protection.

Dickinson responded, “That is not correct.” These are conflict victims, they say. They are young people. They were compelled to work with them.

For instance, the Geneva Convention mandates that states parties “take all reasonable steps” to prevent child recruits under the age of 15 from joining.

Children are merely a reality in today’s conflict, Dickinson said. The government must take that into account if they carry out bombardments, he says.

‘Brutally naive ‘ is what.

It’s difficult to blame child recruits for the deaths of their children, according to Hilda Molano, a COALICO coordinator.

Despite the complex circumstances, she urged all parties to consider children’s rights.

In situations like these, Molano stated to Al Jazeera, “It is obvious that no one person is to blame; in the end, it is a shared responsibility.”

Molano demanded that Colombia’s government improve its presence in conflict areas and do more to deter child recruitment.

She claimed that children in conflict zones “are at risk of being recruited by armed groups and killed by state security forces.”

Meanwhile, the Petro government has maintained that its actions are compliant with international laws governing child protection.

Al Jazeera reached out to the Ministry of Defense for comment, but it was unable to provide a response at the time of publication.

The president claimed that his efforts had already resulted in the release of 2,411 minors, according to the president’s claim on social media.

He remarked that “peace is the best way to stop children from fighting in war.”

He also confirmed that his country’s plans to continue its fight against the EMC, which has been the site of a number of car bombings and drone attacks this year targeting military and police installations.

After the military issued forced displacement orders to residents of several southern Lebanoni towns, Israeli warplanes on Wednesday destroyed a number of buildings. Israel is pursuing sites that it claims are Hezbollah.