PPS: IPS has used every tool to torture and humiliate prisoners

RAMALLAH (Palestine Foundation Information Center) The Palestinian Prisoner Society (PPS) said that the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) has not left any tool unused to torture and humiliate prisoners. The latest instance involved forcing prisoners to wear vests inscribed with threats, as well as bracelets with threatening messages.

In a statement released on Saturday evening, the PPS explained that, as part of the organized terrorism carried out by Israel against released Palestinian prisoners and their families, the IPS has employed every tool of humiliation, torture, and oppression against prisoners and their families. The IPS forced prisoners to wear vests with threatening phrases before their release, and previously compelled them to wear bracelets with similar threatening messages.

The Society emphasized that the IPS continues to torture prisoners, while the occupation forces continue to threaten their families, which is an extension of a policy that has been used for many years, but has escalated significantly during recent release operations.

The Israeli occupation authority has not only committed crimes against prisoners but has also waged organized terror against their families through threats that have escalated to arrests and killings, as well as home invasions and acts of vandalism and destruction.

The statement highlighted that the majority of prisoners released as part of the prisoners’ exchange deal, as well as most of those released after the extermination war, suffer from health issues, necessitating the transfer of many to hospitals. Several were transferred to the hospital on their release on Saturday due to the crimes they have been subjected to, particularly torture, medical crimes, and starvation, in addition to systematic humiliation and abuse, including severe beatings carried out by suppression units aimed at either killing prisoners or causing them injuries and health issues that are difficult to treat later. Many prisoners reported that the IPS deliberately beat them savagely before their release.

Among those released on Saturday were sick prisoners who had suffered for years from medical neglect, including prisoner Mansour Muqada and prisoner Iyad Haribat.

The PPS warned that there are still more than ten thousand prisoners in the Israeli jails, and this number does not include all detainees from Gaza, where hundreds are being held without announcing their fate or whereabouts. It emphasized that time is a critical factor affecting the fate of prisoners in Israeli jails; the longer they are detained, the greater the risks to their fate.

The Society asserted that the goal of all these crimes and threats is not only to attempt to kill and steal the joy of freedom but also to undermine the status of the Palestinian prisoner in the collective Palestinian consciousness.

The first act of the released prisoners in the sixth batch of the Al-Aqsa Flood deal was to burn the clothes that the IPS had forced them to wear before their release, in a scene reflecting their rejection of the Israeli criminal practices. Witnesses reported that upon arriving at the European Gaza Hospital in Khan Yunis, the prisoners removed the white vests that the IPS had forced them to wear, which bore the Star of David and the phrase “We will not forgive and we will not forget,” and burned them amidst chants from their family members and supporters.

The prisoners expressed their outrage at the occupation’s criminal practices aimed at humiliating and degrading them, emphasizing that it is our people who will not forget and forgive the occupation’s crimes over more than seven decades.

Several released prisoners confirmed that they had experienced the most horrific forms of torture, humiliation, and starvation during their detention, pointing out that the IPS employed psychological pressure tactics, including forcing them to wear these clothes carrying Israeli symbols aimed at humiliating them.

In this context, academic and Israeli affairs expert Dr. Mohannad Mustafa noted that forcing Palestinian prisoners to wear these clothes reflects Israel’s perspective on recent events. He explained that the slogan carried by the clothes is inspired by the symbolism of the Holocaust in Jewish memory, indicating that Israel views the events of October 7, 2023, as an extension of that tragic history, according to reports from Al Jazeera.

Mustafa pointed out that Israel has not acted in this manner in its past and that this behavior reflects an unprecedented state of weakness in its political and military structure. He described forcing prisoners to wear these clothes as a “militia-like action” reflecting a decline in Israeli power, adding that this approach was not previously adopted, indicating a significant shift in how Israel deals with Palestinians and current events.

According to the Palestinian Commission of Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs, the last batch of released Palestinian prisoners included 36 prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment, along with 333 detainees from the Gaza Strip who were detained during the Israeli aggression on the coastal enclave.