+972 Magazine reports:

Pale and frail, with an unkempt beard and a prosthetic eye, his emaciated body testifies to the neglect and torture he experienced inside Israeli prison. “Stay away,” he shouts at the eager crowd surrounding him upon his release. “I don’t know what disease I’m carrying — I have a rash and can’t risk shaking hands.” But his parents, overcome with emotion, move forward to embrace him. He shrinks away, fearfully insisting that he should remain untouched.

Mo’ath Amarnih, a Palestinian photojournalist from the occupied West Bank, was released from Ktzi’ot prison in July. Even before this, he was no stranger to Israeli state violence: in 2019, while covering protests against settlements, an Israeli soldier shot him in the face, causing him to lose his left eye. But nothing could prepare him for these nine months in administrative detention — imprisonment without charge or trial — during which he was held in dire conditions, subjected to abuse, and denied medical attention despite suffering from diabetes.

Amarnih is one of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners recently released from Israeli jails whose skinny bodies have been marred by scabies — a parasitic infestation caused by mites, leading to severe itching and rashes that often worsen at night and are exacerbated by the summer heat. The outbreak has been reported in multiple prisons, including Ktzi’ot, Nafha, and Ramon in the Naqab/Negev, Ofer in the West Bank, and Megiddo, Shatta, and Gilboa in the north. Israel has not provided data on the number of prisoners infected.

Over the past year, the total prison population has risen significantly: from 16,353 on Oct. 6, 2023, to over 21,000 by June of this year, according to Israel Prison Service (IPS) data. Around half of them, approximately 9,900 at the time of writing, are defined as “security prisoners,” of whom more than 3,300 are being held in administrative detention. [Continue reading…]