GAZA (Palestine Foundation Information Center) A human rights group says Israeli forces have kidnapped 3,000 Palestinians from Gaza since the start of the aggression on the besieged strip last October, including women and children.
“Since the onset of the genocidal military campaign against Gaza, Israeli forces have detained at least 3,000 Palestinian residents of Gaza, including women, children, elderly people, as well as professionals such as doctors, nurses, teachers, and journalists,” Al Mezan Center for Human Rights said in a report on Monday.
According to the report, around 1,650 Gazans are held in total isolation from the outside world at Nafha and Negev (Ketziot) prisons “under the Unlawful Combatants Law”. They are denied access to a lawyer and legal advice.
This law “has been extensively utilized on Palestinian residents of Gaza as an alternative to administrative detention”, which is commonly used against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East al-Quds.
Under its policy of administrative detention, the occupying regime detains Palestinians without trial or charge for up to six months; a period which can be extended for an indefinite number of times.
Citing their testimonies, Al Mezan said the detainees are subjected to torture and inhumane treatment from the moment of their arrest.
“They were forced to strip naked, wear blindfolds, and have their wrists tied. They were also brutally beaten, deprived of sleep for several days, denied food, and deliberately starved as a form of torture and collective punishment.”
Noting that the “systematic and widespread” torture inflicted upon Palestinian detainees also constitutes crimes against humanity, the group called upon the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to “swiftly” issue arrest warrants against “all individuals implicated in perpetrating and/or ordering such egregious crimes.”
