Hamas: body found in Rafah is that of a soldier killed in 2014. Guardian: Palestinians held underground in Israel

Deprived of natural light since January, they have also been deprived of adequate food. They have no information from the outside world or from their families, or even the charges against them. There are about one hundred Palestinian Gaza detainees that Israel is holding underground in Rakefet prison, including two civilians, a 34-year-old nurse arrested in a hospital in December 2023 and a teenage food vendor arrested in October 2024 while crossing an Israeli checkpoint.

This was revealed by the Guardian exclusively quoting lawyers from the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (Pcati) who represent the two civilians. The Rakefet prison, which means 'cyclamen flower' in Hebrew, was opened in the early 1980s to house some of Israel's most dangerous organised crime figures, but was closed in 1985 because it was deemed inhuman. But Israel's Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, ordered its reopening after the 7 October attacks.

Initially, the prison was designed for a small number of maximum security prisoners in individual cells and when it was closed it housed 15 prisoners. But in recent months, according to official data obtained by Pcati, there are about 100 prisoners incarcerated there. The cells have no windows and no ventilation. Prisoners have told lawyers that they are regularly subjected to physical abuse, including beatings, attacks by dogs with iron muzzles and guards trampling on prisoners, as well as being denied adequate medical care and starvation rations. Very little time is available outside the cell, in a tiny underground enclosure, sometimes only five minutes every other day. Mattresses are taken away early in the morning, usually around 4am, and returned only late at night, leaving inmates on iron frames in otherwise empty cells.

Ben-Gvir stated that the Rakefet prison was reopened to detain Hamas 'elites', i.e. the militiamen who led the 7 October massacre and Hezbollah special forces fighters captured in Lebanon. But in the case of the two 'we visited, we are talking about civilians', said Janan Abdu, a lawyer for Pcati, quoted by the Guardian. "The man I spoke to was an 18-year-old who worked as a food vendor. He was picked up from a roadblock on a road,' he explained. Detention conditions for Palestinians are "intentionally horrible" in all prisons, said Tal Steiner, executive director of Pcati. Current and former detainees, as well as Israeli army informants, have denounced systematic violations of international law. But Rakefet imposes a unique form of abuse. Keeping people underground, without sunlight, for months on end has "extreme implications" for psychological health, Steiner said. "It is very difficult to remain intact when you are kept in such oppressive and difficult conditions," he said, explaining how basic biological functions are compromised, from circadian rhythms necessary for sleep to vitamin D production.

The body of Israeli soldier Hadar Goldin, killed by Hamas in the 2014 Gaza war and held in the Strip ever since, has been found during searches in Rafah. This was reported by a source from Hamas' military wing, the Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades, to Al Jazeera picked up by Israeli media. Citing a source with knowledge of the dossier, Haaretz recalls that in recent days the White House had let Hamas know that the return of Goldin's body would allow safe passage to the approximately 150 Hamas members stuck in the tunnels under Rafah, in an area controlled by the IDF.