'Baby, an update, he's just died': Texts reveal abuse of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons

The incident reportedly began with a question from a prisoner. He had asked a guard if Israel and the Palestinians had reached a cease-fire agreement.

Serious allegations of violence and mistreatment of Palestinian prisoners by the Israel Prison Service have come to light recently after prosecutors filed an unusual case against 12 guards over the death of Thaer Abu Asab, almost three years after he died, according to an Israeli media report.

Freed Palestinian prisoners are welcomed by friends and relatives upon arriving at the European Hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. (AFP/File Photo)

The report said Abu Asab was serving a 25-year sentence over attacks on Israel when he died in November 2023 following a severe beating at Ketziot Prison in southern Israel. The guards involved remained silent about what happened for almost three years, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.

The silence was eventually broken by WhatsApp messages exchanged between the guards, sent on the night of the incident and in the weeks that followed. Investigators later obtained those messages.

One question led to Abu Asab’s death

The question was later brought to the attention of a Prison Service officer identified in the report only as “the commander”. A court order has barred the publication of the names of all the defendants. The report said that the officer chose to respond through violence.

During the evening headcount, 15 guards and 15 members of Keter, a tactical unit of the Prison Service, went into the cell, according to accounts from prisoners cited by Haaretz.

The prisoners were ordered to kneel while keeping their hands above their heads. They were beaten with batons for several minutes, and a dog was used against them.

Guards were also heard shouting about the cease-fire question as they left, according to the prisoners. They said Abu Asab suffered the worst beating and never got back on his feet.

‘Baby, an update: He's just died’

The report said a female guard sent a message to her partner, who was also a guard, while Abu Asab was in the prison clinic and close to death: “They’re doing CPR in the clinic right now, baby.”

Another guard reportedly messaged a friend saying, “Holy shit, what a count,” while a third spoke about pouring “cheese” over prisoners, a prison term for hitting sensitive parts of the body, before saying that one prisoner had died.

Messages sent by guard Oshrit Eliga to her partner, Tamer Tarudi, who worked in the section for female security prisoners at Damon Prison, said, "Baby, an update: He's just died.”

She also reportedly said she was "very happy and satisfied, but now it's a mess. There was a lot of blood, and they broke them."

‘Commander beat the s*** out of them’

The messages also described events that went beyond the night Abu Asab died. Haaretz reported that Eliga's messages described prisoner beatings as something that happened regularly.

In one message mentioned in the investigation, she wrote about prisoners who had recently arrived: “We got so tired of beating them, the commander took off his belt and beat the s*** out of them.”

In another message about a group of new prisoners, she said she would refuse to allow one of them into the section unless he left with injuries.

Eliga later told investigators that she regretted sending the messages and claimed she had exaggerated what she wrote to impress a friend. Haaretz reported that investigators did not follow up on her broader allegations that beatings were a regular occurrence.

Israel Prison Service reacts

The Israel Prison Service told Haaretz that the incident happened during the tenure of a previous commissioner.

It said the current commissioner had already removed some staff members involved in the case, with the move intended to make clear that such behaviour would not be accepted.