Netanyahu orders thousands of news beds for Palestinian detainees

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
11 Mar 2024 09:13

His orders only reflect an intent to carry out mass arbitrary arrests.

Palestinian detainees released by IOF through the Karam Abu Salem crossing wait to receive treatment after they were subjected to torture by Israelis in Rafah on December 23, 2023. (AP)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has directed the occupation authorities to ready thousands of additional beds in prisons for the anticipated detention of more Palestinians amid the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

The orders by the Prime Minister were directed at the finance, security, and police ministries to urgently "prepare thousands of spaces for new detainees and prisoners," the Israeli occupation Prime Minister's office said in a statement on Sunday.

The statement affirmed that thousands of Palestinians will be arrested in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

It also said that about 4,000 Palestinians have been detained, most of them in Gaza.

However, Palestinian prisoners' affairs institutions consistently emphasize that the actual number is higher than the figures provided by the Israelis, stressing that Gaza detainees are being held in camps.

The Palestinian prisoner affairs associations have lately stated that the increasing number of martyrs in the Israeli prisons after October 7, due to torture, systematic retaliatory measures, and medical negligence, constitutes a clear decision to kill them within the framework of the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the comprehensive aggression against the Palestinian people.

This is in addition to the crime of enforced disappearance, which today represents the most prominent and serious crimes that the occupation insists on executing against Gaza detainees, they added.

The forthcoming #UNRWA report aligns with numerous other reports from various human rights organizations, highlighting instances of torture and abuse by Israeli occupation forces, according to accounts of released detainees.

These findings emphasize the importance of swift… pic.twitter.com/TXWEh6blvl
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) March 4, 2024

The harrowing statement adds to multiple confirmed reports published by Palestinian organizations that deal with the affairs of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons, which have shed light on the maltreatment and brutalization of Palestinians, not to mention the alarming number of detainees from Gaza, and the occupied West Bank.

On March 7, the Israeli Haaretz newspaper reported that Israeli occupation forces killed 27 Palestinian detainees from Gaza in military detention camps since October 7.

Haaretz said that the 27 Palestinians were killed under torture while being questioned by Israeli occupation forces in the "Sde Teman" and "Anatot" concentration camps, which also serve as military facilities for occupation forces.

After photos and videos surfaced on social media depicting a number of Palestinian detainees stripped naked and blindfolded while being taken to the “Sde Teman” Israeli camp, located between Beer al-Sabe’ and #Gaza, the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor released a report describing… pic.twitter.com/N4agftLqu2
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) December 27, 2023

At a previous time in January, Haaretz reported that 661 Palestinians are being held in the "Sde Teman" concentration camp, which is about 30 km to the east of the Gaza Strip. The actual number of Palestinians held in these facilities is expected to have significantly risen since the last report, as Israeli authorities maintain near-complete secrecy on the issue.

According to Haaretz, Unit 504 of the IOF has taken responsibility for interrogating "prisoners of war" held in "Sde Teman". The infamous unit specializes in human intelligence and launches covert operations in and out of Palestine. In "Anatot", Israeli occupation forces appropriated the military site to hold Palestinian workers, who held Israeli-issued permits, on October 7.

The newspaper also said that at least one of the detainees in the two camps was killed after occupation forces refused to give him access to life-saving diabetes medication.

On its part, the Palestinian Prisoners Society commented on the expose published by Haaretz, saying that the piece is evidence of further atrocities being committed in such camps.

"All detainees from Gaza are exposed to systematic execution and intentional killing in occupation [concentration] camps, as we have warned since the beginning of the aggression on the 7th of October," the PPS said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Israeli occupation forces continue to implement oppressive policies against Palestinians under occupation and have detained 7,400 Palestinians across the West Bank as of March 4 since the launch of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7, 2023.