Rights groups document Palestinian prisoners shot at close range

LONDON — Two rights groups have documented accounts of Palestinian prisoners wounded at close range inside Israeli detention facilities, the groups said in a statement on Thursday, 20 October 2026.

The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel and Physicians for Human Rights Israel said they had received at least 22 accounts from prisoners who reported being shot with rubber, plastic or sponge rounds. Most were received in the past year. Twenty-one came from Palestinian prisoners and one from a Jewish prisoner. Some injuries required surgery and caused irreversible damage, according to the groups. In one case, medical records described a prisoner's right testicle as "completely crushed," requiring its removal.

The Israel Prison Service defended its use of "less-lethal means" as measured, proportionate and based on operational need. It rejected the groups' demand to halt their use. It declined to disclose details about the weapons, ammunition or rules governing their deployment, citing operational and security concerns.

Sari Bashi, executive director of the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, said firing such rounds in enclosed spaces without an apparent threat to guards or risk of escape would amount to "excessive force" under Israeli law. She said the use of force "is supposed to be a last resort, not a first resort as we fear it is under the prison services." She told Arab News that complaints about abuse rarely lead to criminal investigations.

An Israeli human rights lawyer said shooting detainees inside closed cells when they pose no apparent threat raises "serious legal concerns" about unlawful force. The Israel Prison Service has not publicly responded to the claims about accountability in the groups' statement.

Background

The accounts include a 45-year-old prisoner taken to Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba in June 2026 after what his medical record described as "a disturbance and an incident of rubber-bullet fire." He suffered multiple injuries, according to the record.

Separately, a former prisoner, Thamer Sabaneh, has written a book that documents the treatment of Palestinian prisoners since 7 October 2023, according to Al Jazeera Arabic. The book is about 176 pages long. Its account is based on testimony from prisoners, former prisoners and detainees, and has not been independently verified by the Israel Prison Service.