The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) subject Palestinian detainees from the Gaza Strip to severe torture and starvation, the Director General of the Government Media Office, Ismail Al-Thawabta, revealed.
In media statements on Tuesday, Al-Thawabta said that the occupation had freed several injured captives and kidnappers on Monday. Ten of the freed prisoners had arrived at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central Gaza Strip, east of Deir al-Balah.
He said that the released detainees who showed up at the hospital in appalling condition, looking extremely thin and hungry, and in need of ongoing medical attention.
He clarified that they were subjected to severe torture, which was evident on their bodies. They were also starved, denied access to food, water, and medication, and denied medical care.
Al-Thawabta went on, “Among these wounded individuals who have been released, one has a completely broken foot and received medical attention; another is over 70 years old and requires special care; this individual was admitted to the intensive care unit. The medical teams have been handling these cases and giving each detainee the necessary examinations since yesterday.”
The occupation authorities, he noted, “have committed crimes against humanity, most notably the crime of enforced disappearance, and have arrested more than 5,000 Palestinians from the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the war.”
The Palestinian official held the US administration and the Israeli occupation “fully responsible for the lives of the detainees and abductees and for the crimes committed against them, in light of the former’s refusal to disclose any information about them or their places of detention or presence,” and made an urgent appeal to all international institutions to step in and put pressure on the Israeli occupation to release these detainees.
A few days ago, an investigation by CNN exposed abuses that the occupation was carrying out against Palestinians in a covert detention facility located in the Negev Desert.
According to Israeli testimonies cited in the investigation, “Palestinian detainees live in extremely harsh conditions in a military base that has become a detention center in the Negev Desert (south).”
“Incredible smells permeate the detention facility, where men are packed in rows blindfolded and unable to move or speak,” one witness described the situation.
He continued, saying, “Medicals in the jail facility occasionally amputate inmates’ limbs as a result of injuries brought on by repeated handcuffing, and medical procedures sometimes carried out by unqualified doctors, as the air is filled with the smell of neglected wounds left to rot.”
Since October 7, the Israeli occupation army has waged a devastating war on the Gaza Strip, which has left an enormous humanitarian catastrophe and a major health and environmental disaster.
The Israeli aggression on Gaza constitutes a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and human rights, as it puts the lives of civilians, including women and children, at serious risk, and inflicts great suffering upon them.
