How Israel’s Actions Worsened Its Own Prisoners’ Conditions in Gaza

Israel contributed to worsening the conditions of its prisoners

Hamas released three Israeli male prisoners on Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025, looking frail. Their before-and-after images were widely shared on social media, fueling accusations that Hamas systematically starved detainees.

Eli Sharabi, Or Levy and Ohad Ben Ami’s frail appearances on the day of their release made the headlines across the media, with media outlets and officials' statements showing bias in favour of Israel, shifting all the blame for the prisoners’ gauntness solely to Hamas, overlooking Israel’s role.

However, Misbar’s investigation found that Israel contributed largely to worsening the conditions of its prisoners.

Western Media Ignored Israel’s Role in Starving Its Own Prisoners

Western media reports on the prisoners’ release placed sole blame on Hamas for their condition.

The New York Times reported on the release of the three prisoners, focusing on their conditions but ignoring the months-long famine affecting all civilians in Gaza.

*A screenshot of the New York Times’ report on the appearance of the three male prisoners*

Other outlets followed suit. Business Insider reported that the prisoners were given scarce food while The Spectator published an article titled, “How Hamas Used Starvation as a Weapon of War.”

*A screenshot of The Spectator report on the appearance of three male prisoners*

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was “shocked” by their appearance and warned that their condition would “not pass without a response.”

U.S. President Donald Trump described the three male released prisoners as “Holocaust survivors.” Trump told reporters that “they were emaciated. I don't know how much longer we can take that ... at some point, we're going to lose our patience.”

These reports and statements ignored a crucial fact: Israel’s siege on food in Gaza affected the Israeli prisoners, not only the Gazan civilians—who were largely overlooked in any of these reports—but also the Israeli prisoners.

Israel Manufactured a Famine in Gaza Affecting Its Own Prisoners

Israeli prisoners endured harsh conditions created by the Israeli government's decisions. Imposing a complete siege on food, power, and fuel on Gaza three days into the war, Israel left the whole Strip drowning gradually in famine.

Hamas repeatedly warned that these decisions were affecting the Israeli prisoners as well as Gaza’s population. Still, Israel ignored this fact and continued blocking humanitarian aid.

“They eat what we eat, and they drink what we drink,” al-Qassam Brigades’ spokesperson Abu Obaida said a week after Israel imposed its siege on food in Gaza.

Abu Obaida’s statement was supported by the Israeli prisoners released in the six-day November 2023 truce, in which Hamas released 70 Israeli prisoners in exchange for 210 Palestinians and increased humanitarian aid in Gaza.

One of the prisoners who were released in the 2023 truce said in her interview with the Associated Press News that the prisoners were initially fed well until people in Gaza became hungry.

Ruti Munder, another released Israeli interviewed by Channel 13, said that they initially ate “chicken with rice, all sorts of canned food and cheese,” adding that “We were OK.”

According to Munder, Israeli prisoners were given tea in the morning and evening and the children were given sweets. However, the menu changed as “the economic situation was not good, and people were hungry.”

It bears noting that these accounts were provided at a time when Gaza was not considered in famine yet but renowned organizations such as Human Rights Watch warned of Israel’s policy of using starvation as a weapon of war.

*AP’s report on its interview with freed Israel prisoners in the November 2023 truce*

Conditions in Gaza deteriorated rapidly after the truce, as Israel continued to block commercial food shipments and restrict humanitarian aid.

In January 2024, the Gaza Media Office said that Israel was speeding up the pace of a real famine, as the Israeli army was shooting at aid trucks attempting to reach the Strip.

And in March, when the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief (Oxfam) reported that Gaza had reached catastrophic levels of hunger and starvation which were the highest ever recorded on the IPC scale, al-Qassam Brigades declared that an Israeli prisoner died due to a shortage of medicine and food.

Al-Qassam Brigades repeated its warning that the Israeli prisoners suffer from the same conditions as Gaza’s people. “Hunger, deprivation, shortages of food and medicine, and that illness now threatens the lives of many of them,” the brigades said then.

*Anadolu Agency’s report on the death of an Israeli prisoner in March 2024 due to the famine*

A report by the Independent Arabia in September highlighted how most of the people in Gaza have lost their body weight due to the siege Israel imposed on Gaza’s food.

The report mentioned that tremendous weight loss was the only feature that appeared on all the bodies of the Gaza population during the war period. Weight loss among individuals in Gaza ranged from five to 40 kilograms.

Majed, one of the people the outlet interviewed, said that he suffered hunger for long weeks. “I was eating one little biscuit for a whole day, and there was no food available.”

The reported weight loss surely impacted the Israeli prisoners as well as Gaza’s population.

*The Independent Arabia’s report on the loss of body weight in Gaza, translated via Google Translate*

Moreover, the Israeli news outlet Maariv reported recently that the Israeli prisoners were given high-calorie and protein-rich meals a few days before their release. After the current truce took effect, more aid was allowed in Gaza improving food conditions for both Palestinians in the Strip and Israeli prisoners.

Israel’s Rescue Operation to Prisoners Worsened Its Prisoners’ Conditions

Israel’s own actions have worsened the prisoners' conditions, not only by imposing a siege on food but also through its attempts to rescue them.

On June 8, Israel launched an operation to rescue four Israeli prisoners who were held captive in the Nussierat camp. Four prisoners were rescued that day in a bloody ambush that massacred 274 Palestinians as a result.

In a recent report by the Israeli outlet Yedioth Ahronoth, the outlet said that the Israeli government set the rules of what would be exposed to the media from the rescue operation and what would not, “because they (the government) contradict what they swore to do before.”

*Yedioth Ahronoth reported that Israel operated in a way that threatened the lives of its prisoners*

A Yediotoh Ahronoth source from the Israeli army stated that Israel proceeded with the operation despite knowing that only a few prisoners could be rescued and that it would sabotage the possibility of making a comprehensive deal for all Israeli prisoners.

The involved officials from the Israeli army were aware that the operation would result in tightening the conditions of the rest of the Israeli prisoners and would put their lives at stake.

Israel carried out its operation knowing that it would result in tightening the procedures of the rest of the Israeli prisoners. An Israeli official said that most of the prisoners were kept in apartments above ground in the central camps, in the southern part of the Strip.

After the operation, the prisoners were taken down into tunnels and placed in crowded conditions. It was difficult to get them food for a long time.

The frail appearance of the three Israeli men released on Saturday “are the results of that operation,” the source said.

Another source from Israeli intelligence said to Yedioth Ahronoth that three things changed after the operation: the prisoners were taken down into tunnels, the guarding procedures were greatly tightened, and the conditions of imprisonment became more difficult and complex.

For Israeli prisoners to be taken down meant that the food given to them would be less, as any bringing of food or aid endangers Hamas members. Only a few people from Hamas could get down to the tunnels where the prisoners were held, the Israeli intelligence source said.

“In practice, they were in terrible conditions: they ate, slept, showered and defecated in the same tiny space, rarely receiving food and there was no sunlight to speak of,” the source added.

Yedioth Ahronoth's report added that the conditions of the Israeli prisoners were a “result of Hamas's operational considerations following Operation Arnon (the Israeli name for June’s operation).”

On a final note, such leaks from Israeli intelligence sources raise questions about the government’s decisions that have put its prisoners in Gaza at risk throughout the war.

Recently, former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stated that the ‘Hannibal Directive,’ which allows soldiers to shoot Israeli prisoners along with their Palestinian captors, was issued in various places near Gaza on October 7.

Gallant’s statement suggests that Israel’s strategies throughout the war directly influenced the fate of its people. More coming information may shift the perception of Israel’s role in the suffering of its own people.

Gallant Admits Using Hannibal Directive on October 7

Western Media Bias and the Overlooked Voices of Palestinian Prisoners