Israeli NGOs denounce torture and rape Palestinians in prisons

Against the background of the war in his prisons count record number Palestinians, who suffer systematic abuses and sometimes torture, as they denounce Israeli mkos. Members of these organizations went to Geneva to shed light before the United Nations Organization on the great “crisis” in Israel’s prisons where, as they reported, nine Palestinians died from October 7. “We are extremely concerned,” said Tal Steiner, executive director of the Public Committee against Torture in Israel (PCATI) in an interview with the French Agency. “We are in the face of a crisis,” she said, stressing that “nearly 10,000 Palestinians are being held in Israel…an increase of 200%”. According to Steiner, the situation has deteriorated greatly since the war between Israel and the Hamas Islamist movement broke out. Israel hammers the Gaza Strip and conducts ground operations there after the Hamas attack on its territory on October 7. That attack cost life to over 1,160 people, the majority of them civilians, according to a French Agency count based on Israel’s figures. In the Gaza Strip, over 31,000 people were killed in Israeli retaliation operations, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-controlled enclave. Torture, rape, death Since the military attack on Gaza began, “the crisis in detention centres and Israeli prisons has been truly ignored,” Miryam Azem warned by the legal organization Adalah, defending the rights of Palestinian citizens of Israel. She states that her organization has recorded 19 clear cases of torture within the Israeli penitentiary system since October 7, including sexual violence. “We see widespread and systematic use of numerous methods of torture and abuse against Palestinians,” she said. This crisis “requires the immediate intervention of the international community,” he said. “People suffer in detention status right now it is absolutely necessary to have immediate intervention”. The Israeli penitentiary administration assured for its part that “all prisoners are held in accordance with the law” and that it is unaware of the charges made against it. Any complaint submitted by prisoners “will be thoroughly examined”, he stressed at the French Agency. Mkos are also concerned about detention conditions in Israeli military facilities. At least 27 Palestinians have lost their lives in these detention facilities since October, according to Steiner, who is talking about something “protophany”. No mko, no foreign journalists had access to these camps and the information about the conditions there comes from testimonies from former prisoners. According to this information, prisoners are often closed to “cluvia in an open space” and “they have hands and eyes tied 24 hours a day,” Steiner said. Prisoners are forced to sleep on the ground, in the cold, beaten and not offered medical assistance, Steiner added. According to her, these prisoners – among them children – are subject to Israeli law on irregular militants and are deprived of many rights. “The law is unconstitutional,” said the head of the Public Committee against Torture. There is no official evidence, but Mko estimates that about 1,000 people are being held in these camps and that some 600 others, arrested on Israeli territory on October 7, are being detained by the Israeli penitentiary system. “It is increasingly difficult to defend rights” These two women – both Israelis – members of the mkos spoken to the French Agency appreciate that defending Palestinian rights in Israel has been becoming increasingly difficult since October 7. They themselves have faced threats and insults. The trauma caused by Hamas’ attack and the concern about the fate of hostages who continue to be detained by Hamas in Gaza is understandable to Steiner, but “this is not an excuse for torture.” “If Israel can show it keeps even its worst enemies in human conditions, this will be triumph”.