'Torture Camps': Court Accuses War-Torn Government of Underfeeding Prisoners

Israel's Supreme Court has said the government is failing to provide Palestinian prisoners with enough food. The judges ruled that the state is legally obligated to provide "basic subsistence" and ordered authorities to improve nutrition.

Israel's Supreme Court has ruled that the Jewish state's government failed to provide Palestinian prisoners with enough food to meet their basic needs and ordered authorities to improve their nutrition.

Sunday's ruling marked a rare instance in which the country's top court ruled against the government's actions during the nearly two-year war, the Associated Press noted.

Since the war began, Israel has arrested thousands of people in Gaza it suspects of links to Hamas. Thousands have also been released without charge, often after months of detention.

Rights groups have documented widespread abuse in prisons and detention centers, including inadequate food and medical care, poor sanitation and beatings. In March, a 17-year-old Palestinian boy died in an Israeli prison, with doctors saying the underlying cause was likely starvation.

The decision was made in response to a petition filed last year by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) and the Israeli rights group Gisha. The groups argued that changes in food policy since the start of the Gaza war have led to prisoners suffering from malnutrition and hunger.

Last year, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who oversees the prison system, boasted that he had reduced prison conditions to a minimum he said was consistent with Israeli law, the Associated Press reported.

In Sunday's ruling, a three-judge panel unanimously ruled that the state is legally obligated to provide prisoners with enough food to ensure a "basic level of subsistence."

In a 2-1 ruling, the judges said they had found “indications that the current food supply to prisoners does not sufficiently ensure compliance with legal standards.” They said they had “serious doubts” that prisoners were being fed properly and ordered the prison service to “take steps to ensure that the food supply is sufficient to ensure basic living conditions in accordance with the law.”

Itamar Ben-Gvir, who heads a small far-right ultranationalist party, criticized the decision, saying that while there is no one to help the Israeli hostages in Gaza, Israel's Supreme Court, "to our shame," is protecting Hamas militants, the Associated Press reported. He said the policy of providing prisoners with "the bare minimum conditions required by law" would remain unchanged.

ACRI called for the immediate execution of the sentence, saying in a social media post that the prison service had “turned Israeli prisons into torture camps.”

"The state does not starve people," it said. "People do not starve people - no matter what they have done."