Thousands of Palestinians Subjected to Torture and Arbitrary Detention
Palestinian Prisioners during the transportation, July 2024 Photo: @sightmagazine
August 5, 2024 Hour: 8:35 pm
The Israeli human rights body B’Tselem points out that Israeli prisons should be labeled as «torture camps».
Reports of violence, extreme hunger, humiliation and other abuses against Palestinian prisoners have become common for the agencies that monitor the prisons in which thousands of kidnapped by the Israeli regime.
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According to the report published in August by B’Tselem, the number of Palestinians in occupation prisons has doubled since the Al Aqsa Operation rain on 7 October and reached 9,623 of which almost half were detained without trial, a practice known as administrative detention and which denies the basic freedoms and rights of people anywhere in the world.
“Some were imprisoned simply for expressing sympathy for the suffering of the Palestinians,” states the document, which also indicates that others were detained “on the sole ground that they fell within the vague definition of ‘men of fighting age'”.
The publication is the result of several months of research, in which the agency interviewed 55 former detainees held in one of the 16 prisons of the Israeli prison service and detention centres administered by the Defence Forces of Israel (IDF).
Testimonies point to abuses ranging from brutal beatings and sexual violence to denial of medical care and deprivation of basic needs such as food, water, natural light, electricity and sanitation, including soap and sanitary towels for women.
The publication of B’Tselem joins many other publications which have expressed a similar view, the report drawn up by the UN Human Rights Office, which contains allegations of torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, including sexual abuse of women and men. The UN agency also reports that “at least 53 Palestinian detainees have died in Israeli military facilities and prisons” since 7 October.
“Testimonies gathered by my office and others indicate a series of atrocious acts, such as the simulated drowning and the release of dogs on detainees, among other acts, in flagrant violation of international human rights law and international humanitarian law”, said the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk at the end of July.
In turn, US media authorized by Tel Aviv to the Israeli prison system report having received reports of systematic beatings, often carried out in cells or whole sections, usually with batons and sometimes with dogs.
Court records and autopsy reports reveal “unrestrained, sometimes deadly violence and deprivation by the Israeli prison authorities,” they say.
Autor: CC
Fuente: The Guardian-UN
