Repeated beatings, overcrowding, and withholding basic food provisions have described the escalating abuses in Israeli prisons packed with thousands of detainees since the war in Gaza began ten months ago, according to Palestinians released who spoke to the Associated Press.

Israeli officials have admitted to making conditions harsher for Palestinians in prisons, with far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir boasting that prisons would not be "summer camps" under his watch.

Four Palestinians who were released told the Associated Press that treatment has significantly worsened in the prisons managed by the ministry since the attacks on October 7 that ignited the latest war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. Some emerged from months of captivity emaciated and bearing emotional scars.

The fifth prisoner, Mu'taz Abayat, was so weak that he could not recount his experience shortly after being released in July after six months in the Negev prison in southern Israel. He appeared frail and could hardly focus, managing only to muster the strength to speak for a few minutes, saying he was regularly beaten.

Now at home outside Bethlehem, the 37-year-old man can barely leave his chair.

His cousin, Ayaa Abayat, said, "At night, he hallucinates and stands in the middle of the house, in a state of shock or recalling the torment and pain he has endured." Like many detainees, he was placed under administrative detention, a procedure that allows Israel to hold individuals indefinitely without charges.

The Associated Press is unable to independently verify the inmates' accounts. However, they described similar conditions, even while being held separately. And while Abayat could only speak briefly, the other four spoke at length to the Associated Press, with one requesting anonymity for fear of re-arrest. Their accounts match reports from human rights groups that have documented alleged abuses in Israeli detention facilities.

Concerns among human rights groups about the mistreatment of Palestinian prisoners have primarily focused on military facilities, particularly the Timmons detention center, a desert base where Israeli military police arrested 10 soldiers on suspicion of raping a Palestinian detainee. The detention facility at the base has held most Palestinians captured during raids in the Gaza Strip since the war began.

The soldiers, five of whom have since been released, deny the sodomy claim. Their lawyer stated they used force to defend themselves against a detainee who attacked them during a search but did not sexually assault him.

The Israeli army said that 36 Palestinian prisoners have died in military-run detention centers since October. It stated that some "suffered from pre-existing medical conditions or injuries due to ongoing hostilities," without going into further details.

According to autopsy reports for five of the detainees, two of them bore signs of physical trauma such as broken ribs, while the death of the third "could have been prevented with greater care for his medical needs." The reports were provided to the Associated Press by Physicians for Human Rights in Israel, an Israeli rights group whose doctors monitored the autopsies.

In the face of calls to close the Timmons facility, the army transferred hundreds of Palestinians from the base to prisons managed by Ben Gvir's ministry.

But according to Abayat and others who spoke to the Associated Press, conditions in those facilities are shocking as well.

Munther Ameera, a political activist in the West Bank who was held in Ofer prison, said that guards regularly beat inmates for punishment or often without any reason at all.

He said he and 12 others shared a cell with only six beds and a few thin blankets, and they froze during the winter months. He mentioned that when prisoners needed to go to the restroom, they were shackled and hunched over, and were allowed out only for 15 minutes twice a week. Ameera was held in administrative detention, apparently due to his Facebook posts criticizing Israel.

He said he lost 33 kilograms (72 pounds) during the three months he spent in detention due to minimal food.

This treatment has pushed some to the brink: Ameera recounted a day when he and his cellmates saw another prisoner attempting to commit suicide by jumping from a high fence through a window of their cell. They knocked on the cell door for help. But instead, he said, soldiers with two large dogs entered their cell, shackled their hands, lined them up in the corridor, and beat them, including on their genitalia.

He said that when he was first arrested in December, guards ordered him to strip and spread his legs, then beat him until he complied when he refused. He mentioned that during the subsequent search, one of the guards checked his genitals with a metal detector.

The National Security Ministry said in a statement to the Associated Press that it was not aware of the alleged mistreatment of the five released men. It stated that it follows "all basic rights required" for prisoners, and that detainees may file complaints that will be "fully investigated."

However, it said it has endeavored to "reduce conditions" for Palestinian detainees "to the minimum required by law" since October 7. It stated that the purpose is to "deter ... terrorist activities."

Since the war began, the number of Palestinian prisoners has nearly doubled to around 10,000, including detainees from Gaza and several thousand who have been captured from the West Bank and East Jerusalem, according to Hamoked, an Israeli human rights organization that collects figures from prison authorities.

Among the detainees are alleged militants captured in raids in the West Bank and Palestinians suspected of attacks against soldiers or settlers. However, it appears that others have also been held due to posts on social media criticizing Israel or their previous activism, according to a report by the United Nations Human Rights Office.

All four former detainees who spoke at length said that hunger was perhaps their greatest challenge.

Omar Asaf, a retired Arabic language professor residing in Ramallah, who was also held in Ofer, stated that breakfast consisted of 250 grams (9 ounces) of yogurt and either a single tomato or pepper shared among five people. He also mentioned that he was interrogated about his social media posts.

He said that everyone received two-thirds of a cup of rice and a bowl of soup for lunch and dinner and had to share with others.

He said, "You didn’t see the color of fruit... nor a piece of meat."

According to Mohammed Salahi, who was serving a 23-year sentence in a Jerusalem prison for forming an armed group at that time, stricter conditions were imposed immediately after October 7.

He stated that guards stripped his cell of everything days after the attack, including radios, televisions, and clothing. Eventually, the number of inmates in the cell rose from half a dozen to 14, the curtains in the communal bathrooms were removed, leaving them to bathe in the open, he said. Salahi was released in June after completing his sentence.

A half dozen Palestinian families gathered outside Ofer earlier this month waiting for the release of their relatives. As the gate opened, many emaciated-looking men emerged, with unkempt hair and rough beards, before collapsing to the ground to pray.

Motaz Suwailem embraced his father. He said he spent a year in prison due to a post on Facebook.

He said, "The taste of freedom is very sweet."

Others refused to speak.

One of them, swaying, said, "I only spent two months in prison. I don't want to go back."