Who protects prisoners in times of war? What happened at Megiddo Prison?

In Megiddo Prison, which was formerly a British army camp during the years of its mandate over Palestine and is located near Marj Ibn Amer, approximately 950 prisoners and detainees are held. The prison includes 10 sections where the prisoners live, like in other prisons, under extremely harsh detention conditions, with continuous daily repression and abuse, and the spread of epidemics and skin diseases. The vast majority of them do not receive the necessary medical treatment. Their conditions worsened after October 7, 2023, to a more deteriorating and dangerous extent that was reflected in the overall conditions in the prison. Life in detention has become extremely harsh, with the simplest rules of human behavior and the minimum requirements of international law and international treaties that guarantee the treatment of prisoners and their rights, including the provision of medical treatment, food, and clothing, all of which are guaranteed by international laws.

Human rights reports indicated that dozens of prisoners were injured by interceptor missiles launched while trying to confront Iranian missiles. Limited reports indicated that there were critical injuries among prisoners in prison after the occupying state launched its attack on Iran. There is no room to address the consequences of this war and its objectives, despite the frank talk repeatedly made by the occupation Prime Minister Netanyahu about changing the “face of the Middle East” with all the meanings and connotations that this phrase carries at the level of the map of the region. Perhaps the main topic in these lines is to shed light on the issue of prisoners during wartime, considering it a (forgotten) issue that does not receive the required attention, with the preoccupation with the course of events and developments imposed by a fierce, raging war whose fires may spread to the entire region. At the same time, we must not forget the 20 months of open genocide that did not stop in the Gaza Strip and its impact on the occupied Palestinian territories and Jerusalem in general.

Anyway, back to the topic and the questions it raises that go beyond expressing "deep concern" about what happened due to the media blackout, the suspension of lawyer visits, and the withdrawal of television channels, such that after October 2023, prisoners became completely isolated from the world. The International Red Cross and human rights organizations also do not succeed in visiting all prisons and detention centers except on rare and rare occasions. Here, a series of questions must be raised about the feelings that overwhelm families after hearing about shrapnel falling on their children's rooms in prison? Can anyone imagine the scene without any news at all and no means of communication revealing what happened? Which sections were damaged? How many prisoners? Who are they? And perhaps most importantly, what are the types of injuries? Some reports have mentioned serious injuries. Perhaps the most pressing question is the lack of treatment or transfer of prisoners to hospitals for medical treatment? This directly means that there are wounded prisoners inside the prison who have not been transferred for treatment. This leads to some recently leaked clips about the attacks that the prisoners were subjected to during the past few days and the abuse they were subjected to by prison administrations because of what they called the expression of "joy" in one of the missile batches that Iran launched on the areas of northern occupied Palestine. The short clip shows prisoners who were abused and their rooms were stormed by heavily armed forces of occupation soldiers and a number of prisoners were thrown to the ground after automatic rifles loaded with live bullets were aimed at them. This is not a passing incident but rather a real depiction of what is happening around the clock inside Israeli prisons and detention centers, which summarizes to a large extent the suffering and reflects a small part of what the prisoner endures moment by moment.

The texts of international law and the Geneva Conventions of 1949 clearly and explicitly stipulate the rights of prisoners in times of war and consider the transfer of prisoners from their place of residence to the territory of the occupying state to be a war crime, and guarantee their humane treatment, free from torture, humiliation and degrading treatment. All of this, over the years of occupation, is being flagrantly violated daily, with sworn testimonies from prisoners, both male and female, who were released from captivity, in which they recount horrifying stories of ill-treatment, beatings, starvation and enforced disappearance, in addition to a systematic policy of deliberate medical neglect and a long series of brutal campaigns that prisons have never witnessed before.

What happened to the prisoners since October 7, 2023 is not isolated from a complete context of schools that feed extremist tendencies and the most criminal over the years of conflict. It should not be overlooked. It is not ordinary news reported by some news agencies that is folded into April. What is required today, officially and popularly, and especially on the legal and media levels, is an official, tangible and immediate action that rises to the level of suffering of female and male prisoners, to pressure with all available tools and reveal the truth of what happened in Megiddo, and transfer prisoners to receive treatment for shrapnel wounds, as well as patients who are victims of "Scapius" that is destroying their bodies and other skin diseases, and insist on providing protection for prisoners, and working to stop all forms of aggression and systematic campaigns of revenge against them. We must all work, each in his position and responsibility, out of moral and national duty, to create a clear international legal framework that places its weight firmly under the umbrella of the United Nations and its bodies in order to compel the occupying state to implement international laws and open its prisons and detention centers to international investigation committees. What happened is dangerous and rings an alarm bell. A real danger threatens the lives of prisoners more than ever before after what has been practiced over the past months, and the "Sedeh Teiman" prison near the Gaza Strip is the best witness to the magnitude of the tragedy that the prisoners, both male and female, are experiencing, and more details of which will one day be revealed about the horrific atrocities committed by the occupying state with premeditation and defiance of all international conventions and laws. As for the prisoners, both male and female, despite the suffering, they have the same will that is difficult to break no matter what happens, and they are icons of giving that will not be extinguished no matter how much they try to extinguish their burning vigour.