Recently PHRI has been receiving calls from prisoners in Shata Prison at the north of the country. The prison holds both criminal and security prisoners, both Israelis and Palestinians. They reported that the windows in their cells are open to the cold and the rain, having no glass or shutters. Thus, they are in constant state of cold and sometimes wetness. On December 14th 2017 PHRI appealed to the IPS Chief Commissioner and the Comptroller of the Ministry of Public Security, demanding that they shall solve the problem.

The complaints find support by a recent research published by the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) Research & Information Center. The research asserts that prisoners spent more than 381,000 NIS (around 108,000 $US) on blankets of their own budget, a data from which one can conclude that the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) does not supply inmates with basic conditions and protection from the winter’s cold.