– Occupation exploits official international paralysis and lack of pressure on it to stop war and stop torture of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons
– Thousands from Gaza and more than 9,000 from West Bank and Jerusalem remain inside occupation prisons, in addition to dozens of bodies still held by Israeli occupation
Since last Oct. 7, amid its genocidal campaign, the Israeli occupation has continued to carry out crimes and rights violations against people in the Gaza Strip. No one has been spared from these violations, including women, children, and young men.
– What happened in Sde Teiman Military Prison?
Since the beginning of the brutal, criminal aggression against the Gaza Strip, the Israeli occupation has arrested thousands of our people, especially in Gaza, and transferred them to Israeli prisons, including the Negev Desert Prison, Ofer Military Prison, and the Sde Teiman Military Prison. Sde Teiman Prison, located near the Gaza Strip, was not among the official Israeli prisons recognized by international human rights institutions.
The Israeli occupation and its army have arrested hundreds and transferred them to Sde Teiman Military Prison, where all forms of torture, severe beatings, and the breaking of hands and legs were practiced, and a large number of prisoners were executed.
At the beginning of December, the facts and crimes inside Sde Teiman Prison began to be revealed through the leakage of some information from Israeli doctors serving inside the prison. According to international human rights reports and international media reports, these reports confirmed the practices and torture against prisoners from Gaza in particular, where Israeli soldiers deliberately humiliated them, broke their morale, and forced them into unethical behaviors that violate all international conventions and human norms.
According to testimony from released detainees from Gaza, the occupation stripped them and subjected them to horrific and frightening sexual abuse by police dogs affiliated with the Israeli army. The occupation practiced all forms of torture and beatings against detainees, deprived them of sleep, kept them naked for tens of hours in the prison yard, and denied them clothes, cleaning supplies, haircuts, or even allowing them to sleep.
After the publication of several reports about the violations and torture inside the prison by various international and local human rights organizations, the occupation, through its security institutions, began working to mitigate the damage that affected them and their institutions before the international community. In an attempt to improve their image, the so-called Israeli Supreme Military Court decided to close the prison, keeping it as a detention and investigation center, and transferring all detainees to other Israeli prisons.
Since the opening of Sde Teiman Prison and other prisons such as the Negev and Ofer, the occupation decided to prevent human rights institutions like the International Red Cross and lawyers from visiting detainees from Gaza specifically under the pretext of forced disappearance, not allowing any party to know their numbers, names, or conditions inside the Israeli prisons.
– 9,000 people from West Bank, Jerusalem still inside occupation prisons
Despite all this, human rights institutions in Palestine continued attempting to visit the detainees, with a few lawyers managing to visit a small number of them who had been subjected to all forms of torture and beatings, according to their testimonies to the lawyers during the visits. The occupation continued to place obstacles to prevent lawyers from visiting, despite their requests to the prison administration.
Despite all these practices and crimes, the occupation still holds a large number of detainees from the Gaza Strip and continues to kill and abuse them, disregarding all international conventions and humanitarian laws. The occupation exploits the official international paralysis and lack of pressure on it to stop the war and stop the torture of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons.
Human rights institutions in Palestine have documented crimes against prisoners through the testimonies of released prisoners and detainees, providing testimonies that were made under oath and documenting them for follow-up before international institutions and courts to hold the occupation government, its soldiers, and officers accountable for all forms of torture, crimes, and killings against prisoners.
Thousands from Gaza and more than 9,000 from the West Bank and Jerusalem reportedly remain inside the occupation prisons, in addition to dozens of martyr bodies still held by the Israeli occupation.
*The author is president of the Palestinian Prisoners Association.
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