Released Palestinians recount worsening abuse in Israeli prisons
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This recent interview with the Associated Press comes after the recent arrest of Israeli soldiers sexually abusing Palestinians in the Sde Teiman facility.
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Former Gaza hospital director Mohammed Abu Salmiya is among the Palestinian detainees who say they were tortured in Israeli prisons, undated. (AFP)
Frequent beatings, sexual assault, and violation of basic human rights characterize the conditions of Israeli prisons, which have significantly worsened since the beginning of the occupation's daily aggression in Gaza on October 7.
The Associated Press (AP) conducted interviews with five recently released Palestinian prisoners, recounting their harsh experiences in Police Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir's facilities, who has boasted that prisons will no longer be "summer camps" under his leadership.
Although AP included accounts from five Palestinians in its article, one of the prisoners, Muazzaz Abayat, was too weak to recount his experience following his release in July after serving a six-month sentence at the Naqab prison, due to the regular beatings he faced. The former detainee was described as frail-looking, unable to focus, and barely had the energy to speak for several minutes.
“At night, he hallucinates and stands in the middle of the house, in shock, or remembering the torment and pain he went through,” his cousin, Aya Abayat, said.
Though the other four accounts couldn't be independently verified by the news agency, the victims detailed similar experiences through their lengthy interviews, with one interviewee requesting anonymity for fear of being re-arrested. According to AP, the descriptions matched reports from human rights groups that have documented abuse in Israeli prison facilities.
60 Palestinians have died since Oct. 7
Over 60 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons between October 7 and July, according to a recent report from The Wall Street Journal.
Physicians for Human Rights-Israel provided AP with autopsies of five detainees, detailing two of the Palestinians died from physical trauma, such as broken bones, while the death of the third prisoner “could have been avoided if there had been greater care for his medical needs.”
Severe and frequent beatings are a recurring theme shared by the interviewees recounting their sentences in Israeli prisons.
Munthir Amira is a political activist from the West Bank who was held in Ofer prison. He told the news agency that his fellow prisoners underwent regular beatings from guards as punishment, typically without reason.
Amira also recounted an incident where he and his cellmates watched another inmate attempt suicide by jumping off a high fence due to the atrocious conditions prisoners faced.
The interviewee shared how he and his fellow detainees were bound by their hands, lined up in the corridor, and beaten by soldiers with two large dogs for attempting to get help. He added that they were also subjected to abuse of their genitals.
When Amira was first arrested in December, the Israeli guards commanded him to strip naked and spread his legs, beating him into submission when refused. The former Palestinian prisoner highlighted that during the examination, one of the guards jabbed his genitalia with a metal detector.
Imposition of harsher conditions from Oct. 7
Mohamed al-Salhi was serving a 23-year prison sentence in Al-Quds for "forming an armed group". Due to his lengthy punishment, al-Salhi highlighted that harsher conditions were imposed after October 7.
He said that days after the beginning of the Israeli aggression on Gaza, the prison guards stripped his cell of everything, including televisions, radios, and clothing. In addition, he recounted cells became more crowded, growing from six to 14 inmates, alongside the removal of curtains from communal showers, forcing prisoners to expose themselves in front of their inmates.
Amira shared similar experiences to al-Salhi, who completed his sentence in June, telling the news agency that he and 12 other inmates shared a cell that contained six beds and very few thin blankets, leaving them freezing during the winter season. Additionally, prisoners were handcuffed and bent over when they needed to use the bathroom, and they were only allocated 15 minutes to go outside, twice a week.
Intense weight loss, small food portions
During his three-month detention, Amira lost 33 kilograms due to the small food portions provided in Israeli prisons.
All four former prisoners recounted their experiences of experiencing hunger, stating it was potentially the greatest challenge they faced during their sentences.
“You didn’t see the color of fruit ... not a piece of meat,” said Omar Assaf, a retired Arabic language professor based in Ramallah, detailing his story at the Ofer prison where he was interrogated over his social media posts.
Assaf told the AP that breakfast consisted of 250 grams of yogurt with a single tomato or pepper rationed among five people, while each person received two-thirds of a cup of rice and a bowl of soup for lunch and dinner, which was also shared with cellmates.
'I don't want to go back'
Mutasim Swalim embraced his father upon his release from the Ofer prison early this month, where a half-dozen Palestinian families were anticipating the release of their relatives.
“The taste of freedom is very nice,” Swalim said after spending a year in prison over a Facebook post.
The released detainees included skinny-looking men with rough beards and disheveled hair who immediately dropped to their knees and prayed after the prison gates were opened.
“I just spent two months in prison,” one released detainee said as he passed by, asserting, “I don’t want to go back.”
Leaked Sde Teiman video proves IOF have documented crime archive: PPS
The Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) affirmed on August 8 that the leaked video exposing Israeli occupation soldiers sexually abusing a Palestinian prisoner from Gaza proves that "Israel" possesses a vast documented archive of all of its crimes in the notorious Sde Teiman concentration camp.
According to the PPS, the Israeli occupation intentionally leaked the footage to direct all focus on Sde Teiman, amid talks of shutting it down.
This could show the Israeli strategy of shedding light on Sde Teiman to sidetrack backlash from other prisons and detention centers, as confirmation from the PPS further proves that the IOF commits systematic and equally horrific crimes against Palestinian detainees in all their prisons.
The PPS gave the example of the Naqab prison, where Palestinian detainees suffered various and extreme forms of sexual abuse.
