'Doctor of the poor' describes beatings, medical neglect, and humiliation inside Israeli prison

❗️'Doctor of the poor' describes beatings, medical neglect, and humiliation inside Israeli prison ▪️Haaretz has published the testimony of Dr. Mazen Rantisi, a 71-year-old Palestinian physician from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank known as the "Doctor of the Poor," who has endured severe medical neglect, beatings, and degrading treatment since his arrest on 21 June. ▪️Rantisi, who has spent decades providing low-cost medical care to underserved Palestinians, gave his account to attorney Saja Misherqi Baransi of the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) during her first in-person visit with him after more than a month in detention at Ofer Prison. ▪️According to Rantisi, he was denied his regular medication for the first 10 days of detention and is still being refused one of his prescribed medicines. His repeated requests to see a doctor allegedly went unanswered, with a medic checking only his pulse once through a small opening in his cell door. ▪️He described being escorted outside his cell blindfolded, handcuffed behind his back, and forced to walk bent over with his head lowered, saying guards shove detainees' heads down if they try to straighten up. ▪️He also said prisoners are forced to kneel facing the wall during daily roll calls, are routinely cursed and humiliated, and that prison squads frequently storm cells and beat detainees. ▪️During one raid, he said guards fired tear gas into the overcrowded cell, while younger prisoners shielded him from the blows. ▪️Rantisi told his lawyer that his six-bed cell houses 10 detainees, with four sleeping in shifts on mattresses on the floor. He described scorching heat, mold, fleas, gnats, no cleaning supplies, a single shared bar of soap, and food that was unfit for human consumption, including moldy bread, spoiled rice, rotten tomatoes, and stale eggs, which caused him to lose significant weight. ▪️Haaretz noted that his testimony closely mirrors findings in a 1 July report by Israel's Public Defender's Office, which documented worsening detention conditions, severe overcrowding, poor sanitation, inadequate medical care, hunger, and routine violence in Israeli prisons. ▪️The Israel Prison Service of course rejected the allegations, calling them "untrue" and part of what it described as a "worldwide smear campaign" against Israel.