Israeli occupation prisons 'hell on earth' for detained Palestinians

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
15 Dec 2023 17:32
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The Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs Committee addresses the Israeli occupation's attacks and human rights violations against detained Palestinians in the al-Naqab occupation prison.

Israeli occupation forces personnel gather outside the 'Gilboa' Prison in northern 'Israel' on September 6, 2021. (AFP)

The Prisoners' and Ex-Prisoners' Affairs Committee reported that the Israeli occupation's repressive measures against Palestinian detainees in the al-Naqab prison have radically increased the harshness of life and made the prison a "hell on earth".

The Commission said in its statement, on Friday, that the occupation prison administration completely cut off electricity to prisoners, and deliberately cut off water for the majority of the day, restricting its flow to 50 minutes per day.

The Commission indicated that the administration withdrew food supplies from the prison departments, reduced meals to two meals, and shut down the "cantina".

Meanwhile, the heavily armed repressive forces, alongside the al-Yamam units of the Israeli occupation forces, carried out raids into all departments, and carried out beatings against inmates.

The Commission pointed out that al-Naqab's prison administration denied sick prisoners their transfer to medical clinics or civilian hospitals, and isolated some of them by sending them to solitary confinement cells. Moreover, it closed off the departments and isolated them from each other.

Depriving prisoners of basic rights

The prison administration, the Commission indicated, withdrew the already limited access to television stations from across the prison, alongside all electrical appliances. Furthermore, Palestinian detainees were deprived of going out to the bathrooms designated for showering, and some of them had not been able to shower for days.

Additionally, the prison administration deprived detainees of their visitation rights, informed their lawyers of this decision, and increased the usage of jamming devices to block any possible contact with the outside world.

In further violation of the detainees' rights, the administration shut off the laundry section, considered one of the prison's most important facilities, which led to detainees being unable to wash their clothes for days.

All these repressive practices were coupled with mass transfers inside the detention centers, including transferring detainees from one section to another, or even one prison to another.

The Commission called on all international institutions to intervene urgently to protect detainees from the occupation’s genocidal practices, highlighted through these severe repressive measures.

Israeli occupation turns lives of detainees into 'unbearable hell'

For his part, the head of the Palestinian Prisoners Club, Abdullah al-Zaghari, said in the same press conference that the Israeli occupation’s violations affect all "Palestinian people" against whom the Israeli occupation has been conducting retaliatory attacks.

Al-Zaghari warned that detainees are being targeted more than ever, as evidenced by the testimonies of those released. These testimonies confirm that Israeli occupation forces taking revenge against detainees have turned the lives of the latter into an unbearable hell.

He also spoke of "horrific crimes being committed against Gaza detainees in secret," pointing to growing concerns about the possibility of the occupation carrying out field executions against them, while continuing to refuse to disclose any information about the fate of these detainees, such as their numbers, places of detention, and health conditions.

Israeli occupation tortures to death 6 detainees since October 7

Yesterday, institutions concerned with the affairs of Palestinian prisoners, in addition to the family of the martyr Abdel Rahman Marei who was tortured to death in the occupation prisons, reported that the Israeli occupation is carrying out extensive crimes against them and their families, considered the most serious in decades, amid the ongoing war on the Gaza Strip.

In a speech delivered by the head of the Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs Authority, Qaddoura Fares, in the aforementioned press conference, Fares said that six detainees were martyred in Israeli occupation prisons since the start of its war on the Gaza Strip, the last of whom was the martyr Thaer Abu Assab.

In this context, the brother of the martyr Abu Assab explained that the martyr was not suffering from any disease, at the time of his death, and that the family was not informed of any of the circumstances of his martyrdom, knowing that he spent 19 years in Israeli occupation prisons.

Released Palestinian prisoner Yazan al-Hasanat explains how the IOF treated #Palestinian prisoners since October 7; electronic appliances and clothes were taken away, their break time was limited, and they were barely given any food to live on.

Yazan al-Hasanat was liberated by… pic.twitter.com/NKJcQQNNqh
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) November 27, 2023