The International Commission Hashd Sends an Urgent Message to International Organizations Regarding the Conditions of Detainees from Gaza in Occupation Prisons
Date: October 26, 2024
Original Language / Arabic
Press Release
The International Commission (Hashd) Sends an Urgent Message to International Organizations Regarding the Conditions of Detainees from Gaza in Occupation Prisons
The International Commission to Support Palestinian People’s Rights (Hashd) has called for immediate and urgent intervention to compel the Israeli occupation to halt its ongoing acts of genocide, release detainees, ensure they are not physically or mentally harmed, and cease acts of torture and abuse during interrogations. The Commission also emphasized the need to allow the entry of food, water, and essential medical supplies to ill detainees and to initiate a serious investigation into the crimes against detainees to prevent the perpetrators among the occupation’s leaders from evading accountability.
This call was made in an urgent message addressed to the United Nations Secretary-General, the UN Special Envoy, the President of the Human Rights Council, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, and the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
The urgent message outlined the conditions of detainees from Gaza held in occupation prisons, highlighting that they have been and continue to be subjected to enforced disappearance and torture. The Israeli occupation forces still detain approximately 6,500 individuals, mostly in unknown locations.
The message explained that since the beginning of the ongoing genocide, now on its 386th day, the occupation forces have escalated their unprecedented arrest campaigns. Thousands of civilians have been arrested in a brutal and unprecedented manner across various parts of Gaza during the ground invasion. Arrests took place from shelters, schools, hospitals, homes, and safe passages. Recently, 500 citizens were detained from Jabalia during the ongoing siege on northern Gaza for the past 20 days. Many were arrested during forced displacement at checkpoints set up by the occupation near the Indonesian Hospital, where hundreds were detained at gunpoint, transported under degrading conditions, and held in secret camps amid unprecedented concealment. Since the beginning of the war, hundreds of Gaza detainees remain forcibly disappeared, with testimonies indicating they have been subjected to torture, sexual harassment, and deprivation of rights. For over a year, the occupation has refused to allow the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit them or disclose their names and dire conditions of detention.
The International Commission (Hashd):affirmed that the Israeli occupation continues to hold Gaza detainees in various prisons and camps, including the Naqab and Ofer prisons and the Sde Timan camp, which has been turned into a new “Guantanamo,” where detainees are subjected to severe forms of torture, rape, and humiliation. In addition to systematic medical crimes, detainees have had limbs amputated without anesthesia due to injuries caused by constant handcuffing. Some underwent major surgeries to the abdomen and chest, performed by unqualified doctors, leading to the deaths of dozens of detainees. Furthermore, others were executed extrajudicially.
The International Commission (Hashd): noted that specialized institutions have identified only 24 martyrs among Gaza detainees, out of 41 detainees and prisoners who have died since the start of the genocide. The occupation continues to hide the names of other detainees who died in camps and prisons and has committed acts of rape and sexual assault there. The occupation has deliberately prevented the release of Gaza detainees who have completed their sentences, kept them blindfolded, shackled, and semi-naked, forced them to stand for long hours or kneel, prohibited them from moving their heads or speaking inside detention centers, and continued to publish images and videos showing inhumane treatment of the detainees.
The International Commission (Hashd): warned of the possibility of more detainees being killed amid ongoing torture, abuse, and extrajudicial executions carried out by the occupation forces against civilians. It also pointed out the significant challenges faced in their human rights work to monitor the situation of Gaza detainees, as the occupation continues to withhold information about the detainees’ fate or even their numbers, and prevents lawyers and the Red Cross from visiting them, constituting enforced disappearance under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
The urgent message concluded by emphasizing that the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people, perpetrated by the occupation, constitutes a violation of all rules of international humanitarian law, especially the Geneva Conventions and Hague Conventions. The occupation and its forces have failed to respect or adhere to these rules, making their actions a comprehensive and compound war crime and genocide. The Commission stated that the international community’s failure to assume its responsibilities and compel the occupation to cease its aggression only encourages it to commit more crimes.
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