Family members walk with a Palestinian youth who was released from Israeli prisons under as a Gaza ceasefire and hostage exchange deal after his arrival in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip on December 2, 2025. Photo by BASHAR TALEB / AFP
Ramallah: The Israeli occupation uses winter and the plummeting temperatures as a repression weapon against the Palestinian prisoners through depriving them of the simplest humanitarian rights, the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs (CDDEA) reported in a statement Wednesday.
The statement added that with the approach of winter and the plummeting temperatures, these days mark the worst cold gripping the detainees in years, as the prison administration has intently withheld winter blankets and clothing, effectively converting the dungeons into human freezing chambers that endanger the lives of all without exception.
The cold inside these sections is harsher than outdoors by several orders of magnitude due to heightened wall humidity, the plummeting temperatures of the metal beds, and the steady seepage of frigid air into the cells throughout the night, which has compounded the ordeal, while the detainees possess nothing but light garments that fail to withstand the winter conditions of the prisons, the statement warned.
The statement noted that the crisis is going downhill amid the surging number of prisoners in the cells, forcing them to sleep on the floor due to the lack of sufficient beds, while others cover themselves with tattered cloth, as other patients shiver throughout the night without medication or blankets, a scene described by CDDEA as the harshest form of torture.
There is an impending mass deterioration of health conditions if this policy persists, the statement warned, especially with the upsurge in cases of inflammation and severe influenza, and exacerbation of joint pains.
It noted that what is unfolding amounts to a deliberate infringement upon the prisoners' lives, and is not merely a case of harsh conditions.
As such, CDDEA called for a global spring into action to protect the Palestinian prisoners from risks arising from this harsh cold wave inside the Israeli occupation's dungeons, holding the occupation fully responsible for any potential catastrophe.
