Every Second Was Hell': Palestinian Journalist Recounts Torture in Israeli Prisons
Held for six months without charge, Mujahid Beni Mufleh says beatings, starvation, medical neglect, and abuse in Israeli prisons left him physically and psychologically shattered.
Palestine, PUREWILAYAH.COM – Palestinian journalist Mujahid Beni Mufleh spoke from a hospital room in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, one day after regaining his speech, recounting six months of detention without charge or trial by Israeli occupation forces.
“Hunger, medical negligence, beatings, humiliations, and constant violations. Every second is hell,” Beni Mufleh said.
Taken From His Home Without Warning
Beni Mufleh said Israeli soldiers stormed his home in Beita without warning on June 28, 2025, while he was sleeping with his wife and three children.
“During the war, they started arresting people without evidence. And I was one of them,” he said.
“One night, my wife, my three children and I were sleeping when, suddenly, they broke down the doors and entered the house. They took me to a military jeep after assaulting me inside the house and confiscating my phones and laptop,” he stated.
“They gave me no reason for the arrest nor accused me of any crime. They told me I was being held administratively because of the war,” he said.
Beni Mufleh said he asked the soldiers what he had to do with the war, but was later accused of incitement over his articles and posts.
“They claimed I incited violence with my articles and posts. These are baseless accusations,” said the journalist, who works for Ultrasawt.
Thousands Held Without Charge
Israel holds thousands of Palestinians in administrative detention, relying on alleged secret evidence that neither detainees nor their lawyers are allowed to examine. Many remain imprisoned for months or years without formal charges or trial.
Like many others, Beni Mufleh was first transferred to a police station near Ramallah, then to Megiddo Prison, and finally to the Negev Prison in the desert.
Inside the prison, he said he witnessed abuses that ended the lives of two detainees. One was a 50-year-old man who died of suffocation after being sprayed with pepper spray. The second was Ahmed, an 18-year-old who stopped breathing while asking for an antibiotic after being attacked by a police dog.
Since October 2023, humanitarian organizations including B’Tselem have documented systematic torture in Israeli detention facilities. According to Physicians for Human Rights Israel, at least 100 Palestinians have been killed by Zionist personnel in detention facilities.
Beni Mufleh was supposed to be released on December 25, 2025. Instead, he said prison guards took him to the prison gate only to return him inside.
“I got to see the children waiting outside. That scene was harsh and cruel for me,” he said.
Released 45 Kilos Lighter
The prison gate finally opened on January 16. Two days later, Beni Mufleh was admitted to a Ramallah hospital in critical condition with a severe brain hemorrhage and soaring blood pressure. Doctors performed emergency surgery.
He has spent six months recovering from the hemorrhage, trauma throughout his body, and dramatic weight loss. He said he lost around 45 kilos during his detention.
“What I saw was horrible and cruel, and I cannot forget it or get over it. My mental state is very fragile… There was only hitting and aggression,” he said.
Beni Mufleh said Israeli authorities tried to ensure he would not speak about what happened to him.
“They don’t want you to tell what happened to you in prison, so they try to scare you, terrorize you and torture you to keep you quiet,” he said.
Prisoners Society: A Case of Slow Killing
As in similar cases, the Israel Prison Service denied the accusations made by the Palestinian journalist, despite the lasting physical evidence visible after his release.
The Palestinian Prisoners Society said Beni Mufleh’s case “summarizes the true meaning of the occupation’s extermination prisons,” describing them as “a tool of slow and direct murder and torture.”
The organization said it has documented hundreds of cases of prisoners released in extremely severe physical and psychological conditions, many of which were not made public for fear of rearrest. Several died shortly after being freed.
The PPS has also recorded the arrest of more than 245 Palestinian journalists since the start of the Israeli occupation army’s offensive in Gaza in October 2023. (PW)