Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s far-right national security minister, has presided over a transformation of the country’s prison system. The human rights group B’Tselem has described the jails as “torture camps” where abuse is systemic.

The Guardian’s Jerusalem correspondent, Bethan McKernan, has spoken to some former prisoners about their experience.

“Almost every detainee described similar things,” Bethan tells Michael Safi. “Severe beatings daily – if not more than one time a day – violence during head counts, sexual violence, starvation rations, being denied seeing a doctor, being denied basic things like water and soap, not being allowed outside or seeing daylight.”

We hear from former Palestinian prisoners on life and death inside Israeli prisons.

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