SANA'A July 16. 2024 (Saba) - Despite the fact that the Zionist enemy entity has signed the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which absolutely prohibits torture and ill-treatment since 1991... However, the enemy authorities continue to practice torture systematically and more frequently on Palestinian detainees in order to extract confessions from them, as has been evident during the recent period.
Since the start of the Zionist enemy's ground operation in the Gaza Strip last October, the enemy army has arrested thousands of Palestinians, including women and children, a small number of whom were later released, while the fate of others remained unknown, amid fears of serious violations against them.
According to previous testimonies of released prisoners, the Zionist enemy authorities are committing "grave violations" against Palestinian prisoners, as it was noted that their weight and concentration abilities were severely lacking, due to their suffering in the occupation prisons.
During a press conference held by the lawyer of the Palestine Liberation Organization's Prisoners' Affairs Committee, Khaled Mahajneh, in Ramallah Allah on Monday, he conveyed new testimonies regarding the torture of prisoners from the Gaza Strip in the prisons of the Zionist enemy, including rape and starvation.
Mahajneh said that he visited on Sunday two detainees from the Gaza Strip in Ofer prison (central occupied West Bank), namely journalist Mohamed Arab and prisoner Tariq Abed... He added: "A week before the transfer of Arabs from the Sde Timan camp (south of the occupied entity) to Ofer prison, one of the sick detainees who repeatedly begged for treatment was martyred, but was martyred after being attacked."
"Arab was interrogated inside the Sde Timan camp about the lawyer's visit (last month) and the details he narrated, and he was threatened with punishment for passing the details to the lawyer."
According to lawyer Mahajna, the prisoner Arab recounted the details of the rape of detainees from Gaza, including one of the detainees who was completely stripped naked, and the hose of the fire extinguisher was inserted into his rear… He pointed out that the detainee is currently in a very difficult health and psychological condition.
"Another detainee was completely stripped naked, and his buttocks and genitals were beaten with electric shocks, along with other methods used to sexually assault captives, which are difficult to explain," he said.
Arab also recounted other details about the methods of torture, according to lawyer Mahajna, where "detainees are placed on the ground with their hands tied behind their heads, dogs gnaw their bodies, and shabeh operations accompanied by beating them through police dogs."
The lawyer pointed out that the journalist Arab was not aware that he was in Ofer prison until he informed him of this… He pointed out that "Arabs were transferred to Ofer prison with about 100 prisoners, while they were blindfolded, and the detainees thought that they were transferred to a camp near Gaza." He pointed out that more than "100 detainees are sick, injured and wounded, screaming in pain, and have been left without treatment."
As for the places of detention, lawyer Mahajna quoted the detained journalist as saying: "The cells in Ofer prison are small rooms without ventilation, with iron beds without mattresses, pillows or covers, about 25 detainees are held in the room, some sleep on iron and some on the floor." "Each detainee has 100 grams of bread, a cucumber or a tomato, and a bag of milk throughout the day," he said.
The lawyer continued in his testimony by saying: "Inside the rooms, the bathroom is exposed in front of everyone, with cameras, and in Ofer prison there are two wards (Hell Ward) and (Hell Ward), both of which are for torture, inside the rooms they cannot see the prisoners who are tortured inside these two sections, but they hear the screams of the prisoners at the time of torture.
In early June, the Supreme Court of the Zionist enemy entity began considering a petition from five Zionist human rights associations demanding the immediate closure of the "Sde Timan" military prison, following reports of torture and killing of Palestinian detainees from the Gaza Strip inside.
The Zionist enemy prisons authority estimates that there are more than nine thousand Palestinian detainees, while there is no announced toll on the number of detainees from Gaza.
It is noteworthy that the authorities of the Zionist enemy began to practice torture against Palestinian detainees since their occupation of Palestine, and used several methods to torture detainees psychologically and physically, such as violent shaking, ghost on the small chair, putting the bag on the head, loud music, closet, nail extraction, and other terrible methods practiced by enemy interrogators to extract confessions from Palestinian detainees, so that at least (73) martyrs fell in interrogation cells since 1967 as a result of the torture they were subjected to during the interrogation period.
The Palestinian detainees arrested from the West Bank and Gaza are distributed among four interrogation centers in the north, center and south of the occupied West Bank, depending on their place of residence or place of activity in which they were detained, and the interrogation stage, which can be extended up to 180 consecutive days, is one of the most accurate stages because based on what is happening in it, the legal status of the detainee is determined.
The enemy police and the Zionist border guards resort to the use of force and beatings against the detainees from the first moments of their arrival at the interrogation center and before the start of the interrogation process, and the beatings are accompanied by insults and insults in order to create an atmosphere of terror from the beginning in preparation for interrogation with them.
Zionist interrogators also focus in the interrogation on the aspect of vulnerability and psychological pressure on detainees during the interrogation period, by preventing visits to a lawyer that may last up to 60 days, denying detainees the right to contact their families and inform them about arrest or transfer from one interrogation center to another, and bringing them into birdroom and exposing them to misinformation, death threats, and depriving them of sleep.
The Zionist intelligence uses injuries and health status as a means of pressure on the detainee during the interrogation, and he is pressured and bargained with a confession in exchange for providing him with treatment or relieving himself, and may offer cooperation with the intelligence in exchange for sums of money or facilities provided to the person in exchange for providing information useful to the intelligence, and the detainee is threatened during the investigation as part of the psychological pressure to arrest a member of his family, wife or one of his children, or to blow up his house or property or deprive him of his children and family.
Zionist intelligence tries to keep detainees for as long as possible in interrogation centers even after the end of their interrogation as punishment and additional torture.
The authorities of the Zionist enemy continue to violate Palestinian human rights, deal dismissively with the principles of international and humanitarian law and international conventions, even those to which they have signed, and deprive the Palestinian detainee of his legitimate rights during the investigation period.
During the recent period, Addameer Human Rights Association monitored the issuance of many orders to prevent the meeting of lawyers against detainees at the Russian Compound Investigation Center, and these orders affected the majority of detainees, as the authorities of the Zionist enemy issued nearly 200 orders within three months, and these orders were renewed periodically for different periods ranging from 30 to about 45 days.
Addameer submitted 22 petitions to the Zionist Supreme Court challenging the orders to prevent the detainee from meeting with his lawyer for the majority of the banned detainees who were interrogated at the Russian Compound interrogation center, but 18 petitions were rejected, and the remaining four withdrew the petition on the basis that the lawyer was allowed to visit the detainee.
After the seventh of October, the prisons of the Zionist enemy witnessed a sharp decline in the conditions of detention of prisoners, based on a system of laws and instructions aimed at restricting them, which led to the martyrdom of 11 prisoners, as a result of systematic torture or medical negligence.
According to the Palestinian Prisoners' Club, the total number of Palestinian prisoners in the prisons of the Zionist enemy reached 9,700 at the beginning of July, including 3,380 administrative detainees (without charge or trial)…He stressed that "among the detainees are more than 1,400 from Gaza, who were classified by the occupation prison authority as illegal fighters," noting that the number does not include all Gaza detainees, and they are in the thousands, including women and children.
During the recent period, the Zionist enemy has increasingly used the phenomenon of birds, which has become fearful among prisoners, by placing spies inside prisons who claim to belong to the resistance, and transfer secrets to investigators, and this led to mistrust between prisoners, and increased their psychological torment.
It is clear that this phenomenon was issued by the Zionist enemy of the dictatorial authorities in the Arab world, which was not limited to prisons, but spread outside them, which led to the disclosure of the secrets of Islamic movements and the fabrication of cases, especially after the courts relied on secret memoranda, non-disclosure of sources of information, and the use of this information to issue high sentences on the accused.
This phenomenon of birds pushed prisoners to remain silent for a long time, at a time when man needs friendship, friendliness and talk with others, so this phenomenon became a means of torturing prisoners, especially in the period before trials.
Since the seventh of last October, the Zionist enemy army has been waging a devastating war on Gaza with American support, leaving more than 127,000 Palestinian martyrs and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than ten thousand missing amid massive destruction and famine that killed dozens of children. The Zionist enemy continues its war, ignoring the UN Security Council resolutions to stop it immediately, the orders of the International Court of Justice to end the invasion of Rafah, take measures to prevent acts of genocide and improve the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Al-hamadani
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