GAZA, (The Palestine Foundation Pakistan)
The Palestine Center for Prisoners Studies has asserted that the Israeli occupation authorities are attempting to deceive international public opinion by conducting a show trial for five soldiers accused of committing rape and torture against Palestinian detainees.
The center emphasized that such crimes are not isolated incidents, but rather part of a systematic policy backed by the Israeli government and its extremist ministers.
In a press statement on Thursday, the center’s director, Riyad Al-Ashqar, said that what is happening inside Israeli prisons and detention centers reflects an organized strategy to humiliate Palestinians, crush their will, and degrade an entire people by attacking their social and moral fabric.
He added that the soldiers involved in these violations did not act independently but received direct approval from political leaders, most notably the far-right Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has openly incited violence against detainees, called for the death penalty, and led efforts to worsen prison conditions to the point of torture.
Al-Ashqar explained that these so-called “trials” are merely cosmetic proceedings, designed to defuse international outrage after the magnitude of the crimes was exposed. He recalled similar cases where investigations were closed due to political interference, including a recent incident in which Ben-Gvir and his supporters stormed the Sde Teiman detention center to extract soldiers involved in the rape of a detainee, an incident that was completely covered up without accountability.
He stressed that “these judicial theatrics fool no one,” as they reflect the corrupt structure of the occupation’s system, which fully shields perpetrators of crimes against Palestinians while treating the victims as faceless numbers without rights.
Al-Ashqar confirmed that Palestinian detainees are “dying every day” in Israeli prisons as a result of systematic torture, medical neglect, and inhumane treatment, while the international community remains silent in the face of such blatant violations.
He called on the global community to urgently pursue legal action against Israeli officials before the International Criminal Court, especially following new reports and testimonies regarding sexual violence and torture in Rakevet Prison, describing the revelations as irrefutable evidence of the collapse of Israel’s moral framework.
These developments come amid a surge in international human rights and media reports documenting physical and sexual abuse of Palestinian detainees since the beginning of Israel’s genocide on Gaza in October 2023, with global organizations demanding a transparent and independent investigation into these crimes.
