Crimes Committed against Prisoners: Occupation Claims Exclusive “Nazi-like Camps” for Gaza Detainees?

Department of Research and Strategic Studies in collaboration with the Department of Security and Military Studies

Tunis, March 13, 2024

The Israeli occupation has left no Palestinian in the Gaza Strip unharmed, seeking revenge for what the Palestinian resistance did to its army on October 7, 2023. Even civilians abducted from Gaza, amidst its failure to reach resistance members, fell victim to Israeli atrocities.

The latest chapter of Israeli crimes against Palestinian prisoners from Gaza revealed deliberate killings of dozens of detainees in detention centers and interrogation facilities.

According to an investigation by the Israeli newspaper “Haaretz,” 27 Palestinian prisoners from Gaza have been martyred since October 7 of last year, 2023, due to mistreatment or suffering from illnesses.

The report indicated that prisoners returned to Gaza spoke of “harsh treatment,” including beatings and abuse by Israeli occupation soldiers during interrogation.

The report quoted an Israeli army spokesman as claiming that an investigation into the martyrs would be opened, stating that “some prisoners suffered from pre-existing health conditions or were injured during the war.”

Torture in “Cage-like Cells”

The number of martyrs of the captive movement reached 240, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Club, with 10 prisoners previously sentenced martyred in Israeli prisons since the beginning of the aggression on Gaza.

The investigation pointed to prisoners from Gaza who were martyred during interrogation inside Israeli prisons. It quoted released prisoners as saying that the Israeli occupation police detain Palestinian prisoners in temporary cells resembling “cages.”

A source told the newspaper, “At least one of them, who suffers from diabetes, died there after not receiving medical treatment.”

The Hebrew newspaper reported the presence of prisoners whose hands were tied and eyes blindfolded throughout the day. Photos revealed the conditions in which the prisoners were held. A source added that Israeli soldiers tended to “punish and beat the prisoners,” consistent with testimonies of Palestinians later returned to Gaza.

Released prisoners also showed bruises and marks on their wrists due to prolonged handcuffing.

Although this investigation appeared in an “Israeli” newspaper and not an international report, it has not affected the continuation of the “genocidal” war against Palestinians in Gaza through bombing, starvation, and even imprisonment.

According to a report by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) published by The New York Times last week, “Released prisoners in Gaza witnessed beatings, theft, stripping of clothes, sexual assault, and were prevented from accessing doctors and lawyers.”

The investigation indicated that data from the Israeli Prison Service sent to the “Hamoked” center for individual rights defense showed that as of March 1, there were 793 residents of Gaza detained in Israeli prisons under the status of “unlawful combatants,” in addition to an unknown number of Gaza residents detained in military detention facilities.

Continuation of the Bloodthirsty Trend

Osama Al-Ghoul from the International Solidarity Foundation for Palestinian Prisoners said that the martyrdom of 10 prisoners from the West Bank and Gaza in Israeli prisons in a record period in the history of the prisoner movement warns of the danger of the crime of “enforced disappearance” of new Gaza detainees and the torture practiced in detention and interrogation centers in the occupied territories.

Al-Ghoul added in a statement that the martyrdom of 27 Palestinian prisoners from Gaza in Israeli occupation prisons after being arrested from the Gaza Strip during the ongoing war reveals the continuation of the “bloodthirsty trend” in the behavior of Israeli occupation gangs that do not adhere to any moral, religious, or international laws. The prisoners were denied their rights as prisoners, including meeting their families, lawyers, or any representatives of international institutions like the International Committee of the Red Cross, constituting a blatant violation of all international laws that grant prisoners their rights in detention and captivity.

He explained that the Israeli occupation fights Gaza prisoners psychologically and physically, violating their dignity in places controlled only by occupation soldiers inside military bases and central prisons, resembling Nazi camps in the past, especially after the revelation of the rape of two female prisoners from Gaza.

Al-Ghoul affirmed that the investigation published by an Israeli newspaper confirms violations that have reached the point of killing detainees during interrogation, as happened with detainees from the “Sdeh Teiman” and “Anatot” camps. Israeli forces kept detainees in “Sdeh Teiman” handcuffed and blindfolded for many days without water or food, inevitably leading to slow death.

He pointed out that the Israeli occupation army has been concealing and covering up from day one the fate of Gaza detainees arrested at the beginning of its aggression on the Strip, trying through torture operations to obtain confessions and information to help its war against the resistance and its popular incubator. This reveals deliberate and systematic operations to continue the policy of enforced disappearance and torture of these detainees without any accountability.

He emphasized that the Israeli occupation forces did not consider any humanitarian or medical conditions for Gaza prisoners, despite being aware of many cases suffering from diseases requiring continuous medical consultations or intensive care. They did not provide treatment to those injured by their gunfire and arrested them with their wounds and pains, causing them further psychological and physical pressures, leading to the confirmation of the death of one of the diabetic prisoners who was martyred due to lack of medical treatment.

International and Palestinian human rights institutions have revealed that the occupation forces have amended military laws and enacted new laws during the war that allow them to detain prisoners for up to 75 days without seeing a judge, meaning more exclusivity in the fate of detainees, controlling and torturing them, and killing them away from the eyes of the world.

A human rights observatory pointed out that the “Sdeh Teiman” camp, run by the Israeli army between the cities of Beersheba and Gaza, where the majority of detainees from the Gaza Strip are held, has turned into a new Guantanamo prison where the dignity of detainees is violated, and they are subjected to the most severe forms of torture and abuse while being deprived of food and medical care.

The Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs Authority called for international intervention to reveal the secret “Israeli” prisons and detention facilities for Gaza detainees, following a report by an Israeli channel on the types of torture imposed on those detained on October 7 or throughout the days of the Israeli aggression.

According to reports, there is no precise number of Gaza detainees, while the Israeli army announced in recent months that the number of detainees reached 2,300, whereas estimates indicate that the number of detainees – based on testimonies of those released – is much higher, reaching several thousand.