PPS says 'Israel' forcibly disappearing prisoners from Gaza
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The Israeli occupation forces' increasingly strict measures against Palestinians have led the Palestinian Prisoners Club to be unable to get any information about those detained from Gaza.
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An Israeli soldier stands guard during the ground offensive on the Gaza Strip in Khan Younis, January 27, 2024 (AP)
The Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) declared Tuesday that the Israeli occupation forces were refusing to disclose any information about the Palestinians detained in Gaza and taken back to the occupied Palestinian territories.
The Israeli occupation is committing the crime of forced disappearance against the Palestinian prisoners in light of the martial law imposed by "Israel" regarding its treatment of Palestinians detained from Gaza, the PPS added.
The Israeli Knesset recently approved the implementation of regulations that prohibit prisoners in Gaza from meeting with their lawyers for another four months.
The head of the EuroMed human rights organization, Rami Abdo, told Al Mayadeen in December that the Israeli occupation has no redlines when it comes to the Palestinian prisoners arrested in the Gaza Strip.
Several prisoners arrested in Gaza died due to the torture and starvation they were subjected to, with at least 1,000 civilian prisoners of war being reported in Gaza.
The Israeli occupation "committed major atrocities against the prisoners," he said, which he highlighted included mutilating their corpses.
The human rights observatory, Abdo added, was trying to gather information about the Israeli occupation's actions through the testimonies of those who had been released.
Both male and female civilians detained in Gaza, the EuroMed chief said, were sexually assaulted. "Israeli brutality reached unprecedented levels, which include electrocution and denuding prisoners."
Abuse of prisoners
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported Monday that hundreds of Palestinians who were detained in Gaza and taken to the "Sde Teman" base near Beer al-Sabe’ were killed as a result of the harsh detention conditions.
It further stated that "the age group of the Palestinian detainees killed while under investigation ranges from minors to elderly individuals."
The newspaper described how "detainees are locked in fenced areas blindfolded and handcuffed for most of the day, with lights kept on throughout the night.”
Israeli media had broadcast scenes showing dozens of Palestinian detainees stripped naked and blindfolded, which sparked international outrage.
Meanwhile, Palestinians reported that the invading occupation forces detained Palestinians, took them to an unknown destination, and shot them directly.
‘New Guantanamo’
Commenting on Haaretz’s report, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Observatory announced that the testimonies it collected were consistent with the Israeli outlet’s findings regarding the martyrdom of Palestinian detainees from Gaza due to torture in an Israeli center that the Observatory described as a “new Guantanamo".
Among the crimes committed by the Israeli occupation against civilians are forced displacement, field executions, random and arbitrary arrests, and harassment.
The Observatory also highlighted how detainees were stripped of their clothes, handcuffed, abused, forced to sit on their knees in open areas, and subjected to severe beatings and harassment despite the very cold weather.
Some detainees were even used by the Israeli army as human shields.
To this end, the Observatory called for "an impartial and urgent international investigation into the Israeli army's field execution of Palestinian civilians after detaining them from various areas across the Gaza Strip."
