August 3, 2024 marks the 300th day of Israel’s genocide against Palestinians, starting from October 7, 2023. Before his departure on July 31, 2024, Ismail Haniyeh, the political head of Hamas, called for August 3 to be made the International Day of Support for Palestinian Prisoners.
On Saturday, August 3, 2024, Prisoners’ Rights Organizations and Palestinians around the world stood in solidarity to support Palestinians detained by Israel. The day was dedicated to highlighting Israel’s crimes and violations of Palestinian prisoners’ rights, as well as the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Israel’s Brutality
Israel’s secret systematic brutality against Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons must be exposed. Since October 7, 2023, Palestinian prisoners have been subjected to horrific crimes. Shortly after Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced that Israel was cutting off the supply of food, water, electricity and fuel to Gaza, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir also launched an action against Palestinian political prisoners and detainees held in Israeli prisons and camps.
Since then, the Israeli army and security services launched a mass arrest campaign, which saw 9,800 Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem detained. At least 335 women and 680 children were arrested. More than 3,400 people were placed in administrative detention – held indefinitely and without charge, including 22 women and 40 children. The number of administrative detainees has not reached this level since 1967.
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Torture of Palestinian Prisoners
The head of the Palestinian Prisoners Affairs Commission, Qadura Fares, stated in a release on Al-Jazeera media that Israel arrested an unknown number of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, possibly exceeding thousands. They are being held under the 2002 Unlawful Detention of Combatants Law, which allows the Israeli army to detain people without issuing detention orders.
Under the orders of Israel’s Minister of National Security, already severe conditions in Israeli prisons have worsened. Prison authorities drastically reduced food and water rations, closing small shops where Palestinian prisoners could buy food and other necessities. They also cut off water and electricity, and reduced the time allotted to use the restroom. The prisoners were also prohibited from bathing, which resulted in the spread of diseases, especially skin-related diseases such as scabies.
There are reports that Palestinian prisoners are denied medical treatment. The systematic malnutrition and dehydration faced by the prisoners has taken its toll. Some of those released left the detention centers in terrible physical condition. In fact, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that such food weapons are “unacceptable”.
The use of torture, including rape and beatings, is also widespread. There are shocking reports of prison guards urinating on prisoners, torturing them with electric shocks, and using dogs to sexually assault them. There are even testimonies of Israeli forces using Palestinian prisoners as human shields during the fighting in Gaza.
Torture and other systemic ill-treatment are predicted to have reached the level of extrajudicial killings. According to a recent report by Haaretz media, 48 Palestinians died in detention centers. One of them was Thaer Abu Asab (38), who was brutally beaten by guards in Israel’s Ketziot Prison, and later died from his injuries.
Prison Brutality Testimony
Israeli medical staff working in the detention center testified that the conditions inside the detention center where Palestinian prisoners are held are appalling. Prisoners were reportedly often operated on without anesthesia, some of whom even had to have amputations because they were shackled during sleep or while receiving treatment.
Palestinians who have been released from Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo detention centers say that what they experienced in detention was more horrific than what they heard. There, American troops also tortured prisoners and forcibly disappeared Arabs and other Muslims.
They also testified that some prisoners were killed through torture and severe beatings. A prisoner from Bethlehem, Moazaz Obaiat, who was released in July, alleged that Ben-Gvir also directly tortured him.
Insisting on Genocide
Although Israel has been condemned by various global human rights organizations, Ben-Gvir and other members of the Israeli governing coalition continue with this unlawful act.
“[Prisoners] should be killed with a shot in the head and the bill to execute Palestinian prisoners should be passed at the third reading in the Knesset […] Until then, we will give them the bare minimum to survive. I don’t care,” Ben-Gvir said on July 1, 2024.
Using mass incarceration, Israel has systematically destroyed the social, economic and psychological fabric of Palestine since 1967. Since then, more than one million Palestinians have been arrested, thousands have been held hostage for long periods of time under administrative detention, and 255 prisoners have died in Israeli prisons.
International Day of Support for Palestinian Prisoners
Israel’s crimes against Palestinians did not begin in October 2023, but this ‘attack’ is a continuation of the systematic process of ethnic cleansing, forced displacement, and apartheid that they began even before 1948.
“This is why on August 3, we urge the world to collectively protest against the Israeli occupation’s crimes and racist laws, and we call on governments to uphold their legal obligations to prevent such crimes from happening,” stressed Qadura Fares, Chairperson of the Palestinian Prisoners Affairs Commission.
“We also call on trade unions, universities, parliaments, and political parties to participate effectively in large-scale events, demonstrations, and digital campaigns in solidarity with Palestinian political prisoners,” he concluded. (RQA)