GAZA (Palestine Foundation Information Center) Testimonies by Palestinian prisoners recently released from Israeli occupation prisons revealed a number of violations and practices of torture being committed against them in detention.
Israeli occupation authorities have recently released 114 Gazan prisoners and returned them to the Gaza Strip through Karm Abu Salem crossing in the southern tip of the enclave.
Local sources reported that nine of the released prisoners were transferred to Abu Yousef Al-Najjar Hospital to receive treatment and undergo medical examinations after their health conditions deteriorated as a result of brutal torture they were subjected to at the hands of Israeli occupation forces (IOF). The rest of the released detainees were transferred to shelter centers, the sources added.
Released prisoners narrated details of cruel torture they encountered inside Israeli prisons, as signs of torture and beatings were so obvious on their bodies and skins.
Speaking to Aljazeera, the elderly Mahmoud Al-Nabulsi said, “The IOF stormed my house in Al-Amal neighborhood in Khan Yunis. I told them I was sick and could not move, but they arrested me any way and put me inside a demolished house before being transferred to Israeli detention centers. I spent ten days in prison. We were beaten and tortured every day. I had never seen this torture in my life. They carried out the worst violations against us.”
“If I had stayed in prison for two more days, I would have lost my life. They kept asking me about Hamas’s tunnels and Israeli captives. I told them I did not know anything. I am 70 years old,” Al-Nabulsi added.
“We were deprived of drinking water for 4 days. They were pouring water on the ground in front of us while we were thirsty,” he said.
The released prisoner Nidal Mansour said while lying on his back in hospital that he was arrested with others after the IOF destroyed his house in Sheikh Radwan neighborhood north of Gaza City in mid-November. There are hundreds of other prisoners who are still held in detention camps inside and around the Gaza Strip and subjected to the most severe forms of torture by the IOF, he added.
In one testimony from Khaled Al-Nabris from Khan Yunis, he said, “When we evacuated Khan Yunis and passed the checkpoint, I was kidnapped by Israeli troops who took me along with others to prisons where we were subjected to severe torture. We were forced to use wet blankets under extreme cold with no water to drink.”
“The IOF transferred us to another place. There, we were subjected to a new kind of torture as we witnessed a different kind of torture in each place we were taken to. The officer hit me on the head, and when I complained, he would hit me more. I could not sleep because of the cold. Besides physical torture, we went through a process of psychological insults and humiliation.”
Al-Nabris pointed out that “There are minors who were terrified of the torture practices inside prisons as they were subjected to increased doses of torture and get attacked by dogs while asleep.”
Detainees from Gaza are subjected to enforced disappearance as the IOF refuses to disclose their names or places of detention and prevents any party from contacting them.
The exact number of detainees from Gaza is still unknown, while some estimates indicate thousands of detainees are being held amid the continuation of daily arrests.
