UN Expert Says Palestinian Prisoners In Gaza Have Experienced Torture Since February 2024

JAKARTA - UN Special Reporter for the human rights situation in occupied Palestinian territories since 1967

In a press statement on Monday Albanese stressed that Israel remains protected from accountability for these crimes, quoted from WAFA November 10.

The Guardian published an exclusive report that reveals Israel is detaining dozens of Palestinians from Gaza in an underground prison called "Rakeft," where prisoners do not get enough sunlight, food, and any contact with their families or the outside world.

The report is based on testimony from lawyers from the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI), who visited the prison and spoke with two civilian prisoners.

The report also confirmed many fully civilian detainees, and Israeli courts extended their detention in a brief video trial without a lawyer's presence, confirming this with the phrase "until the end of the war."

Previously, Palestinian prisoners who were released from the Gaza Strip said they had been interrogated to torture that left them injured, sick, and traumatized.

About 2,000 Palestinian prisoners have been released in recent weeks by Israel, in exchange for the release of 33 Hamas hostages in the Gaza Strip, in addition to 5 Thai hostages who were repatriated in an unscheduled release.

The exchange is part of a gradual ceasefire that halted fighting on January 19, after 15 months of war that has devastated the Palestinian enclave.

Ibrahim Al Shawish, 45, a teacher from Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza, told The National he was turning a blind eye and transferred to an unknown number of detention centers following his arrest in December 2023 at a Gaza school.

"They stripped us naked in cold weather and interrogated us in unbearable conditions," he told The National.

"It was a real nightmare," he continued.

Al Shawish further said he was dragged naked on the broken glass, leaving his body injured and bruised.

"When they dragged me, the soldiers threw the most heinous insult at me, at my family," he said.

"My body was torn apart, but they refused to provide any medical assistance. I suffered silent when my wounds were infected and my pain continued for weeks," she broke out.

The psychological impact is just as terrible. "They told me that my family had been killed in Gaza, in hopes of destroying me, destroying my spirits. I believed in them, just to find out, when I was finally released, that they were still alive," he said, holding back tears.

Al Shawish described the prison as a cold and oppressing place, where the basic dignity of mankind is eroded.

"We close our eyes 24 hours a day, are prohibited from moving or even leaning on anything. We eat, sleep, and defecate in the same position, completely restrained," he said.