Israeli NGOS denounce ‘systemic abuse’ of Palestinian detainees

A Sept. 11, 2021 file photo provided by Israel police shows a Palestinian man who escaped from a high-security prison. KEYSTONE/Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved

Israeli prisons are holding a record number of Palestinians, who are subjected to "systematic abuses" and sometimes torture, according to Israeli NGOs.

The rights advocates were in Geneva this week do denounce the situation and urge the international community to act, French news agency AFP reported.

Nine people had allegedly died behind bars since October 7, according to the Israeli NGOs.

“We are extremely, extremely concerned,” Tal Steiner, the executive director of the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI), told AFP. “What we’re looking at is a crisis.”

“There are almost 10,000 Palestinians in Israeli custody right now, … a 200% increase from any normal year,” she noted.

The conditions for Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons are a long-running concern for the UN and other humanitarian actors. But the situation had worsened dramatically since war erupted in Gaza, according to rights advocates.

The conflict began on October 7 after Hamas carried out an unprecedented attack that killed at least 1,160 people inside Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally.

The militants also seized about 250 Israeli and foreign hostages. Israel believes about 130 of them remain in Gaza, including 32 believed to have died.

In Hamas-ruled Gaza, more than 31,000 people have been killed in Israeli reprisal attacks, mainly women and children, according to local Palestinian health authorities.

Crisis situation

“The crisis in Israeli detention centers and prisons has really been ignored”, warned Miriam Azem of the Adalah Legal Center, which defends the rights of Palestinian citizens of Israel.

She told AFP her organisation had managed to document “19 clear cases” of torture within the Israeli prison system since October 7, including sexual violence.

“We are witnessing a widespread and systematic use of very many means to inflict torture and ill-treatment on Palestinians,” she added.

The Israeli Prison Service told AFP: “All prisoners are detained according to the law” and that it was “not aware of the claims against it.”

The service was “not aware of the claims”, against it, the spokesperson said, but stressed that any complaints filed by detainees “will be fully examined and addressed by official authorities”.

The NGOs also raised concerns at reported conditions inside the military camps holding those detained inside Gaza.

At least 27 Palestinians have reportedly died in such camps since October, according to Steiner, who said this was “unprecedented and extremely severe”. The camps have not been accessibe to Israeli NGOS or foreign journalists.

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