Israeli Prisons Worse than Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib: Palestine Ambassador
By Desire Tshuma
Dr. Tamer Almassri, the Ambassador of the State of Palestine, has expressed profound concern over human rights violations against Palestinian prisoners, including women and girls, who are subjected to severe torture in Israeli detention centers. He likened the conditions in these prisons to those at Guantanamo Bay, but worse.
Palestinian detainees from Gaza and the West Bank suffer brutal treatment and torture at the hands of Israeli military forces. Over 3,300 individuals from Gaza have been abducted to undisclosed prison locations. More than 9,000 Palestinians, including 300 women and 635 minors, from the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem have been arrested.
These detainees endure extremely harsh conditions, such as confinement in spaces resembling chicken cages, deprivation of food and water for extended periods, and severe torture and beatings to extract confessions.
Tragically, over 27 Palestinian detainees from Gaza have died during interrogation due to torture or denial of medical treatment. There are reports that Israel has returned bodies of martyrs without organs like kidneys and hearts, raising suspicions of organ trafficking.
The Israeli occupation authorities also persist in detaining journalists, subjecting them to threats, physical assaults, detention, and persecution. In the ongoing conflict, around 80 journalists have been arrested, and over 144 have been killed.
Palestinian women and girls in Gaza face extrajudicial executions, threats of rape, starvation, denial of healthcare, and verbal abuse by Israeli interrogators, all aimed at forcing confessions.
The State of Palestine urges the Government of Israel to respect its obligations to uphold the rights to life, safety, health, and dignity of Palestinian women and girls, ensuring protection from violence, torture, ill-treatment, and degrading treatment, including sexual violence.
In the past 24 hours alone, Israeli occupation forces have committed seven massacres against families in the Gaza Strip, resulting in the deaths of 71 Palestinians and injuries to 182 others.
The total documented death toll since the onset of the conflict has risen to 36,550, with 82,959 individuals injured. Israel continues to use starvation as a weapon against 2.2 million Palestinians in Gaza, leading to numerous deaths.
