Rights groups call for urgent action to protect Palestinian detainees
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A joint statement by 31 organizations underscores that Palestinian children held in Israeli military custody are subjected to systematic abuse and mistreatment.
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Israeli army soldiers positioned at the entrance of the Tulkarm camp for Palestinian refugees inspect a vehicle used by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society arriving at the scene, during a raid on the camp in the north of the occupied West Bank on September 12, 2024. (AFP)
UN member states must take immediate action to protect detainees across the occupied Palestinian territories, a group of human rights organizations underlined.
In a joint statement, 31 organizations, including Save the Children, Human Rights Watch, and Oxfam, urged the international community to implement measures that would establish a critical protective presence and ensure that both children and adults in detention are treated with dignity and in accordance with international humanitarian and human rights law.
"This includes demanding that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is granted immediate and unfettered access to all detainees and hostages, to the full extent required by international humanitarian law," the statement stressed.
The organizations also demanded the immediate and unconditional release of Palestinian children arbitrarily detained by the Israeli occupation military.
The statement underscored that Palestinian children held in Israeli military custody are subjected to systematic abuse and mistreatment, including degrading practices such as strip searches and forced imitation of animals.
"No child should ever come into contact with a military court, or any court that lacks comprehensive fair trial rights and basic safeguards. No child should ever be abducted," the organizations asserted.
Save the Children highlighted that Palestinian children in Israeli occupation prisons are subject to increasing hunger, physical abuse, and outbreaks of infectious diseases. Some detainees have even disclosed experiences of sexual assault and severe beatings, according to the report.
Elsewhere, the joint statement indicated that Israeli prisons have severely restricted access for human rights monitors, legal representatives, and the families of detainees from the occupied West Bank, while access for detainees from the Gaza Strip remains almost entirely denied.
UN 'deeply concerned' by reports of sexual violence in Israeli prisons
The UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict Pramila Patten voiced on Monday "serious concerns" over reports of rape and other forms of sexual violence against Palestinian detainees in Israeli custody, condemning the normalization of such acts as “unacceptable".
In a statement, Pramila Patten expressed alarm following recent United Nations reports, particularly from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), which indicate a worrying decline in the treatment of Palestinian men, women, and children held in Israeli custody since October 7, 2023.
"Sexual violence and sexualized torture in any form and in any context, and particularly in detention settings, is unacceptable. Such abhorrent acts not only constitute a grave violation of human rights and human dignity but they also undermine efforts towards peace and stability in the region," Patten underlined.
She pointed to disturbing reports of sexual violence and other inhumane and degrading treatment of Palestinian men and women, potentially amounting to "sexualized torture".
The reports, according to the UN official, detail various abuses, including the use of "sexual slurs and threats of rape and gang rape, repeated and humiliating strip searches and prolonged forced nudity, beatings and electrocution of genitals and anus, insertion of objects into detainees’ anuses, inappropriate touching of women by both male and female soldiers, and photographing or filming of naked or partially undressed detainees in humiliating positions," the statement read.
Moreover, she expressed concern "about recent attempts by some Israeli political actors, to interfere with ongoing justice processes and/ or to justify the use of these methods."
Patten recalled a recent high-profile case involving a Palestinian male detainee who was hospitalized in July with serious injuries to his rectum, reportedly inflicted through sexual violence at the Israeli Sde Teiman military base.
In August, leaked footage of Israeli occupation forces sexually abusing a Palestinian detainee from Gaza at the notorious Israeli concentration camp Sde Teiman has surfaced. According to Israeli media reports, Israeli troops deployed in the camp to guard Palestinian detainees have been torturing them and sexually abusing them for their own amusement.
Furthermore, she emphasized the critical need to uphold international human rights standards and ensure that detention conditions fully comply with international norms. The UN official also urged Israeli authorities to provide unhindered access to international bodies for the inspection of detention facilities in "Israel" and the occupied Palestinian Territories, including Gaza.
Elsewhere, Patten reiterated her call for thorough, independent investigations by relevant and competent UN bodies into all alleged violations, with the aim of holding all perpetrators accountable, regardless of their rank or affiliation.
Testimonies collected by human rights groups and media outlets, citing former Palestinian detainees and Israeli whistleblowers, reveal the systematic torture and abuse perpetrated by Israeli occupation forces against Palestinian prisoners and detainees in violation of their rights under the Fourth Geneva Convention and international law.
UN demands probe into Israeli sexual assault of Palestinian detainees
A couple of days ago, the United Nations called for a comprehensive investigation into human rights abuses against Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons.
Farhan Haq, the UN deputy spokesperson, emphasized the need for a detailed probe into reports of systemic torture and degrading treatment of Palestinian detainees by Israeli authorities.
This call for investigation follows a report from the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem, which revealed troubling testimonies from 55 former Palestinian detainees. The report described "inhuman conditions" and detailed that over a dozen Israeli prison facilities are functioning as "de facto torture camps."
The UN official emphasized during a press conference that the UN's call for an investigation was in response to the B'Tselem report, stating that "all of these allegations of violations of basic human rights norms must be thoroughly investigated, and there should be accountability."
“We also believe that whenever human rights norms are violated to this extent, there needs to be follow-up. Our human rights colleagues dealing with Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory will continue to follow up on all of these allegations,” Haq stressed.
It is worth noting that B'Tselem outlined various cases of abuse committed by Israeli prison authorities, including "arbitrary violence, sexual assault, humiliation and degradation, deliberate starvation, sleep deprivation, and denial of adequate medical treatment."
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