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Gaza Genocideupdated 2h ago3 min read

Israeli Guards Fire Rubber Bullets Into Palestinian Prisoners’ Cells, Rights Groups Say

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22 testimonies document guards firing directly at prisoners inside Israeli prisons Serious injuries included a testicle rupture and a required shin surgery

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Israeli Guards Fire Rubber Bullets Into Palestinian Prisoners’ Cells, Rights Groups Say
Image: Filastin On Line
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The Times of Israel was read line by line by the Watchdog: 4.0. See the score →

Shared framing

Headlines commonly foreground a rights-group report or prisoner testimonies when describing shootings in Israeli prisons; several also emphasise serious injuries or shootings inside cells. The coverage draws on the same joint report, often relayed through Haaretz or Anadolu, rather than independent findings by every outlet.

15 of 18 outlets · 16 of 21 headlines analysed

  • Al-Jazira NetA human rights report reveals cases of shooting at prisoners
  • Operativ Məlumat MərkəziReport says Israeli guards shot Palestinian prisoners with rubber bullets
  • شبكة قدس الإخبارية22 statements about shooting at prisoners inside the prisons
See the headlines

Report and testimony attribution

Headlines foreground a human-rights report, organisations or prisoner testimonies as the source of the shooting allegations. Captured openings trace these accounts to the same joint rights-group report, often through Haaretz or Anadolu; their repetition is not independent corroboration. Several titles are translations, so this is a comparison of emphasis, not identical wording.

Other angles in this collection

Serious injuries foregrounded

6 outlets · 6 headlines

These titles explicitly emphasise serious injuries from the reported shootings. This describes headline emphasis; the accounts share the rights-group report and related coverage rather than separate verification by every publisher.

Shootings inside cells

4 outlets · 4 headlines

These headlines specify that guards fired into or inside cells. They describe the reported location; the wording alone does not establish an intention to heighten danger or a trend in weapon use.

All 21 analysed headlines

Counts describe this collection. One headline may support more than one angle.

Exclusions: Unclear event match (1), Different event (2).

Analysed 15 Oct 2026.

Reviewed by Codex validator (AI) · 15 Oct 2026

22 testimonies, serious injuries

Two Israeli human rights organizations said they received at least 22 testimonies from prisoners and detainees, most of them Palestinians, describing Israeli prison guards firing projectiles they characterized as rubber or plastic or foam bullets. The organizations said the testimonies included shootings from short distances and inside cells, where prisoners had no room to move away from the source of fire or to take cover, and they documented cases in Ofer, Ganot, Ketziot, Gilboa, Megiddo, Nitzanim, and Eishel prisons. The report described a 45-year-old Palestinian prisoner who was transferred to Soroka Hospital in June after being shot with rubber bullets, with medical documents saying he was hit in several parts of the body including the genitals and required removal of his right testicle after it was severely damaged.

The report also described another prisoner sustaining a fracture in his left leg due to close-range gunfire and being transferred to Soroka Hospital where he underwent surgery to fix the fracture. The organizations said they turned to the Israeli government’s Attorney General and senior officials in the Prison Service calling for an end to what they described as the “uncontrolled use of live fire on prisoners.”

Image from Al-Jazira Net
Image: Al-Jazira Net
Reporting for this sectionAl-Jazira Net

Prison Service says “less lethal”

The Israeli Prison Service admitted using what it called “less lethal means” against prisoners, claiming its use is carried out in a calculated, proportional, and operationally necessary manner. The Prison Service refused to disclose the nature of these means and the ammunition used, as well as their characteristics and rules of use, citing security and operational considerations, and it rejected the call to stop using them altogether. Mohannad Abu Ghosh, director of the prisoners and detainees department at Physicians for Human Rights, said firing on prisoners is not a new phenomenon but that the recent period has witnessed an “unprecedented escalation” in its use.

Merav Ben Ziv, legal affairs director at the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, criticized the Prison Service’s response, saying it “reflects disregard for prisoners’ physical and psychological safety and entrenches the cover-up of what is happening inside prisons.” The organizations said the documented cases contradict the Prison Service’s own guidelines, which require proportionality and use of force as a last resort.

Image from Anadolu Ajansı
Image: Anadolu Ajansı
Reporting for this sectionAl-Jazira Net

Escalation inside prisons

The organizations said the testimonies show a gradual shift of firing at prisoners into a routine method of violence inside prisons, with injuries including severe bleeding, fractures, and internal organ damage requiring surgeries. The report said the increased use of such means threatens prisoners’ lives and could cause permanent damage, and it described prisoners reporting shooting during raids carried out by guards or inside sections and cells. In one testimony, a prisoner in Ofer Prison said he refused to return to his cell in protest of being denied treatment for a scabies condition for months, adding that the guards responded by firing at him and using an electric stun on his head.

In Nitzanim Prison, another prisoner said he was wounded by several rubber bullets on the lower part of his body during a panic attack. The report also said Israeli occupation forces continued raids and arrests in the occupied West Bank, indicating an ongoing escalation of violations in the file of Palestinian prisoners and detainees, whether inside or outside the prisons in the occupied West Bank.

Reporting for this sectionAl-Jazira Net