Rakevet” — The Hidden Underground Cell
NYN | Reports and Analyses
Since the outbreak of the latest Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, Palestinians have been living through one of the harshest periods in their modern history.
Thousands of families are suffering from loss and destruction, while hundreds of civilians face arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances under inhumane conditions.
Israeli prisons and detention centers have turned into places of silent suffering—beyond the reach of cameras and the voices of human rights organizations.
“The Horrors of Rakevet Prison”
The British newspaper The Guardian revealed in a recent investigative report that Israel has been holding dozens of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip inside a secret underground prison known as “Rakevet.”
What the newspaper reported is not just a news item, but a harrowing investigation about detainees living in cruel and inhuman conditions—deprived of natural light and sufficient food, denied contact with their families, and cut off from any information about the outside world. Most of them have not been charged with any crime for months and are subjected to various forms of torture daily.
“Terrifying Details from Beneath the Ground”
The investigation indicated that the entire facility is located underground—including the cells, the exercise yard, and the lawyers’ meeting rooms—leaving detainees completely isolated from sunlight and fresh air.
Among those detained is a nurse who was arrested while performing his duties at a hospital in Gaza, simply because he was tending to the wounded and easing their pain. Another is an 18-year-old youth whose fate remains unknown since he was transferred to the prison, with no explanation as to why he is being held in such darkness.
These practices amount to crimes against humanity and constitute a blatant violation of the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law, which guarantee detainees their right to humane treatment, communication with their families, and knowledge of their place of detention.
“Urgent Call for Investigation and an End to Violations”
Human rights organizations have called on the international community and the United Nations to open an independent and urgent investigation into what is happening inside this secret prison and other Israeli detention centers known for their brutality, and to hold accountable all those involved in these violations.
The organizations also demanded the immediate release of all Palestinian detainees and the unhindered access of international committees to their places of detention.
Silence in the face of such horrific abuses amounts to complicity in the crime. Justice must find its way to these victims who live in absolute darkness—beneath the silence of the world.
