(This extract takes five minutes to read.)
"At the roll call every morning, everyone has to say, 'Good morning, captain. Thank you very much, captain,' and bow down. Then you have to stay on the floor for another half hour until they finish counting. Once, the guards came into the wings, threw us out into the yard and cuffed our hands behind our backs. They walked dogs over us and fired into the air. Our heads were pressed against the ground. They didn't tell us why, but a few days later, new prisoners arrived and told us they had seen videos of Ben-Gvir visiting. That's how we figured out why they had done it.
"One day, I had a court hearing. I was surprised when my lawyer told me during the hearing that my daughter had been born. I was detained for nine months, a relatively short time, but when I got out, I saw how much things in the village had deteriorated. It turned out my uncle's community had left because of settler violence.
"Before I was released, a Shin Bet officer asked me about October 7. I told him I call it the cursed October 7. I told him, 'Don't look at me as a terrorist. No one is more peaceful than me. Our problem is with the extremist settlers who have turned the world upside down.' If he had pushed me a little, I would have told him, 'I have more Jewish friends than you do.' I have Jewish friends I'm really proud of, who stood by me during my detention, before it and after it. I won't forget that."
When R., 43, was released from Ketziot Prison in April 2025, doctors told him not to hug his children. "I have five children," he says. "For two weeks, I wasn't allowed near them because of the scabies I caught at the end of my prison term. You itch all night and can't sleep. Then blisters appear all over your body. When I told the prison doctor, he said he had nothing to give me: 'When you die, you'll get ointment from God.' They don't give you medicine there. Sometimes, if you ask for medicine, they punish you by turning off the light in the whole cell. You spend the whole day in the dark.
"There were 15 of us in a room meant for six. Not enough blankets, no clothes. I spent six months in the same pants and shirt. There were no spoons or cups, just a disposable plastic plate. If you try to wash it, it breaks. For three weeks, I didn't have a toothbrush either. Then they brought me a small one.
"Every night, the Keter unit guards would come in, each time into a different cell. They'd come at 2 A.M., fire rubber bullets, sometimes spray tear gas inside the cell and close the door. After half an hour, they would open it and let us out into the yard. There, they would beat us and bring dogs to walk among us. Sometimes they would let a dog scratch you. If you try to push it away, they jump on you and beat you.
"If your lawyer comes to visit, you go to the visiting room. You get beaten on the way there and on the way back. Your eyes are closed, your hands cuffed behind your back, your head down. If you lift your head, they beat you. They would fasten the cuffs very, very tight, and the shackles on your feet, too. If you fall, they beat you. Once, I asked a guard to loosen the cuffs a little because I couldn't move, so he started beating me. Then they laugh at you. They were young, maybe 25. There were a lot of Druze among them, and they were more abusive than the Jews.
"At night, they would turn on a radio, and one of the guards would start singing and cursing at 3 A.M.: 'You motherfuckers, we're killing you, we're burning you.' I was moved through five wings, and it was like that everywhere.
"I got to shower once every 15 days. The water was cold. There were six showers for 150 prisoners, and they gave us all half an hour. Then they shut off the water. If you got your shower in, you got it in. We got one plastic cup of soap for the whole room: for your hair, your body, everything. You have nothing to wash yourself with. They give you half a plastic cup of laundry powder for the whole room.
"And you aren't allowed to pray together, only on your own. If they heard us praying together, the Keter unit would come in, or they would take people away to punish them. They didn't take me, but others told me they were put in a small room with a bag to use as a toilet, and at night, they had water poured over them. When people came back after three or four days, they couldn't stand.
"Some people arrived from Megiddo Prison. They had diarrhea and couldn't make it to the toilet. Sometimes they soiled themselves. The guards picked those very prisoners to hand out the food."
The Israel Prison Service said in response: "The allegations described are untrue, have no factual basis and are part of the campaign to smear the State of Israel and its lawful institutions around the world. The IPS operates in accordance with the law and under continuous judicial review. All those incarcerated in IPS facilities are held in accordance with the law and receive the rights and necessary treatment prescribed by law."
The IDF Spokesperson's Unit said in response: "Since the outbreak of the war, substantial resources have been invested in establishing detention infrastructure. IDF detention facilities provide detainees with sleeping arrangements, food, hygiene, medical care and other conditions in accordance with the law and international law. Detention conditions and treatment are subject to internal monitoring and oversight mechanisms, as well as external and judicial review.
"The IDF rejects the allegations of systematic abuse of detainees. Abuse of detainees violates the law and IDF orders and is therefore strictly prohibited. The IDF has various oversight mechanisms to ensure that detention facilities under its responsibility operate in accordance with IDF directives and the law. These include continuous monitoring through closed-circuit cameras, periodic discussions within the General Staff, oversight by commanders at the facility, and other measures.
"Restraints are used on detainees to maintain the safety and security of the facility only in exceptional circumstances that justify their use, subject to Israeli law, the provisions of international law and IDF orders. Administrative detention is used only when the security authorities possess reliable, substantiated information indicating that the detainee poses a real threat to the security of the area, and no other alternatives exist to eliminate that risk.
"Administrative detention is used in accordance with the law and subject to an individual examination of each case, only after a professional official has reviewed the file and confirmed that an indictment cannot be filed on the basis of the nonclassified evidence. The orders are subject to judicial review by the court and are periodically reassessed."
The Shin Bet declined to answer why Samoudi, Abu Naim and Khuwaira had been held in administrative detention.