Israeli jails a ‘graveyard,’ says freed Palestinian journalist

A Palestinian journalist claims Israeli prisons have become a “graveyard” for the living, following a dramatic decline in his health after being released earlier this year.

Mujahed Bani Mufleh, 37, spent six months in jail after being accused of inciting violence against Israel through his journalistic work.

Two days after his release in January, he suffered a severe brain hemorrhage and was admitted to hospital in critical condition, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club advocacy group.

Now frail and barely recognizable, Bani Mufleh is recovering at a hospital in Jenin, in the West Bank, after undergoing a series of surgeries during which doctors removed part of his skull.

“The prison was like a graveyard,” Bani Mufleh tells AFP, as he undergoes rehabilitation to regain his ability to talk and move.

“I was assaulted inside my home in front of my children,” he says of his 2025 arrest during a raid on his home.

Israeli military and prison authorities do not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment on Bani Mufleh’s allegations. Israel’s prison service has previously said that all prisoners are detained according to the law with their basic rights fully upheld.

Soon after his release he posted a video online saying that in jail he “came to understand what real hunger means.”

Bani Mufleh, editor of news website Ultra Palestine, part of Qatar-based media network Ultra Sawt, said he had been “placed in administrative detention without any complete or substantiated charge. They claimed that I incited violence but had no proof.”