Rakefet prison, a clandestine underground installation in Israel, has recently faced sharp criticism for the continued detention of around 100 re-education inmates without charge. When it first opened in the early 1980s, its purpose was to hold high-risk underworld tunnels. It had to close only a few years later due to inhumane conditions. In recent months, this prison has returned to center stage. It deeply worries us because the majority of Palestinian detainees are civilians who have been entrapped in the violence of decades of conflict.
The prison was intended to house only 492 inmates. The facility had a design of individual cells and could house only 15 men when it finally closed in 1985. Recent reports from the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) have brought us alarming news. Today, the facility is one of the largest holding more than 900 detainees subject to extreme isolation and traumatic psychological conditions. As our TCC fellows have written, these detainees particularly face egregious conditions. They are kept for months in cages subterranean, deprived of all access to sunlight—environmental enrichment known to be essential for their mental health and wellbeing.
Tal Steiner, the executive director of PCATI, stressed the psychological effects of such isolation. He stated, “It’s very hard to remain intact when you are held in such oppressive and difficult conditions.” This declaration adds to the seriousness of the conditions that people who are incarcerated at Rakefet are experiencing.
Detainees have allegedly had almost no access to fresh air and direct sunlight. Many receive only five minutes of access outside their cells every other day. Their appropriate Norfolk conditions are not great. Each morning at 4 AM, the guards come and remove the mattresses, forcing the prisoners to sleep on cold, hard iron beds until late at night when the guards bring back their mattress.
Surveillance cameras placed all over the facility create an unclear legal landscape. They are a serious hindrance to confidential communications between detainees and their attorneys, presenting serious ethical issues for legal representation. Visiting her clients in Rakefet, civil rights lawyer Janan Abdu shared her deep concern regarding the conditions and treatment inside the facility. She remarked, “I asked myself, if the conditions in the lawyers’ room are so humiliating – not just personally to us but to the profession – then what is the situation for the prisoners?”
The treatment of captives seems to be informed by a wider war climate. Even as civilian casualties grew, Israel apparently considered most of the Palestinians it captured or killed in the recent war as civilians, according to classified Israeli data. Israeli judges have legitimized their detention in suspiciously short video hearings often held without access to legal counsel. Detainees often find themselves unaware of the evidence against them and are told they will remain incarcerated “until the war ends.”
Among those currently detained is a 34-year-old nurse who was arrested at his workplace in a hospital last December. In a subsequent meeting with her attorney, she said, “Where am I and what am I doing? This deeply troubling question captures the confusion and hopelessness many of those detained without cause experience. Another detainee, a teenager taken at an Israeli checkpoint in October 2024, expressed his feelings of isolation by stating, “You are the first person I have seen since my arrest,” and implored his lawyer by saying, “Please come see me again.”
The deplorable conditions and treatment within such facilities has horrified human rights advocates and legal experts alike. Critics say that keeping people underground under such harsh conditions is by definition cruel and constitutes a violation of human rights. Tal Steiner cited Rafael Suissa’s perspective on the matter: “[Suissa] wrote that he understood being held below ground 24/7 is just too cruel, too inhumane for any person to endure, regardless of what their actions have been.”
In response to such criticisms, Israeli officials, including the Prime Minister, have defended these measures as essential for national security. Itamar Ben-Gvir, an Israeli politician, remarked that “This is terrorists’ natural place, under the ground,” reflecting a prevailing sentiment among some authorities regarding the justification for such detentions.
Rakefet prison is still a highly disputed detention site. Alarm bells are ringing about how this practice is harming the physical and mental health of detainees. With the world—and especially a global constituency of supporters—looking on, horrible reports continue to seep from inside, painting vivid pictures of life behind its bars. These detentions are much more impactful than just the troubling individual cases. They ask critical questions about status, accountability, human rights, and the way civilians are treated under conditions of protracted violence.