President Abbas Strongly Condemns Israel's Deliberate Torture of Palestinian Prisoners

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. (Source: Presidency of The Republic of Turkey)

JAKARTA - President Mahmoud Abbas praised the steadfastness of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli occupation prisons, strongly condemning the brutal torture they are subjected to by the occupation authorities, highlighting what Marwan Barghouti, a member of the Fatah Movement Central Committee and prisoner leaders experienced.

President Abbas stressed, "What the prisoners are experiencing in the occupation prisons occurs in the context of the comprehensive aggression that the Palestinian people are experiencing in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and Jerusalem," WAFA reported on October 29.

He further emphasized that Israeli crimes will not succeed in breaking the steadfastness of the heroic prisoners, who paid their freedom as a price for the dignity of their homeland and people.

President Abbas called on international organizations, especially human rights organizations, to immediately intervene and carry out their responsibilities in accordance with international agreements on prisoners, to force the occupying state to stop its escalating crimes against them.

Marwan Barghouti's arrest during Operation Defensive Shield in 2002. (Wikimedia Commons/IDF Spokesperson's Unit)

Palestinian prisoners' support groups have previously accused Israel of "brutally assaulting" Marwan Barghouti, the most prominent Palestinian prisoner in Israeli custody, leaving him injured.

In a joint statement on Monday, the Commission for Detainees' and Ex-Detainees' Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners' Society said on Monday that Barghouti was attacked on September 9 while being held in solitary confinement in Israel's Megiddo Prison, Al Jazeera reported.

As a result of the assault, Barghouti, who has been called the "Palestinian Nelson Mandela" by his supporters, sustained multiple wounds, mainly to his upper body, the statement said.

The Fatah politician, who has been in prison for more than two decades, suffered wounds to his head, ear, ribs, right arm, and back, the statement said, citing a lawyer who was only able to gather information after months of being barred from contacting the detainee.

Barghouti suffered bleeding in his right ear, which later turned into an infection due to medical negligence, the statement said.

The 64-year-old was reportedly attacked along with a group of other Palestinian detainees.

The commission added that the Palestinians were held in "tragic conditions", especially during the past year during the war on Gaza.