The Palestinian Prisoner Society announced Monday that the Israeli army has detained, since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza on October 7, over 98 Palestinian journalists, 52 of whom remain in Israeli prisons.
The non-governmental organization (NGO) revealed in a statement that 15 of the 52 imprisoned journalists are being held under administrative detention while six are women journalists and no less than 17 are from the besieged Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian Prisoner Society, which advocates for the rights of Palestinian prisoners, named Nidal Al-Wahidi and Haitham Abdelwahid as among the detained journalists from Gaza who were the subject of forcible disappearance with no information about their conditions.
Journalists are Targets
The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS) along with the Al-Dammer Association for Human Rights in Gaza, and the Independent Commission for Human Rights, announced in a joint press briefing on August 13 that more than 94 Palestinian journalists had been arrested since October 7.
They said the latter were “subjected to enforced disappearance, with no information available about them from any official sources.”
‘Dead or Alive?’ – NYT Report Reveals Torture, Abuse inside Israel’s Detention Center
For its part, the Committee to Protect Journalists issued a statement on September 3, noting that “since October 7, Israel has been arresting Palestinian journalists in record numbers and using administrative detention to keep them behind bars, thus depriving the region not only of much needed information, but also of Palestinian voices on the conflict”.
“If Israel wants to live up to its self-styled reputation of being the only democracy in the Middle East, it needs to release detained Palestinian journalists and stop using military courts to hold them without evidence,” CPJ Program Director Carlos Martínez de la Serna in New York commented
Horrific Detention Conditions
A recent report by the B’Tselem Israeli human rights group titled ‘Welcome to Hell’ documented testimonies from 55 Palestinians incarcerated in Israeli detention facilities.
The report indicates “a systemic, institutional policy focused on the continual abuse and torture of all Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.”
It documented frequent acts of severe, arbitrary violence; sexual assault; humiliation and degradation, deliberate starvation; forced unhygienic conditions; sleep deprivation, prohibition on, and punitive measures for, religious worship; confiscation of all communal and personal belongings; and denial of adequate medical treatment.
The organization said “no less than 60” Palestinian prisoners have died in Israeli custody.
The Israeli army has arrested thousands of Palestinians from different areas across the Gaza Strip. However, Israeli authorities refuse to give an exact number of arrests.
‘Welcome to Hell’ – B’Tselem Documents Network of Torture Camps, Abuse of Palestinians
Following the release on August 22 of over 40 Palestinian prisoners including a journalist held without charges or trial, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) said some of those released were suffering from skin diseases, particularly those released from the Naqab Prison, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
Naqab Prison has been notorious for torture and abuse, as evidenced by numerous testimonies documented by several rights organizations.
Initial photos and video footage of the released detainees reveal the severe impact of their mistreatment, amid the Israeli policy of systematic food deprivation, with some looking gaunt and all having lost weight during their detention.
A number of whistleblowers have also highlighted the unimaginable conditions of mistreatment of Palestinian prisoners at the notorious Sde Teiman detention facility, in the Naqab (Negev) desert.
AL-JAZEERA: Journalists Ayman Al-Nubani and Mohammed Mansour were shot by Israeli occupation forces in the town of Kafr Dan, west of Jenin in the West Bank.
FOLLOW OUR LIVE BLOG https://t.co/9XZlQEH8Dk pic.twitter.com/ytQhNkoP08
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) September 3, 2024
Most recently an unnamed Israeli physician gave a first-hand account to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz on August 16 of the inhumane practices detainees from Gaza are subjected to by Israeli forces at Sde Teiman.
The Israeli doctor, who reportedly served at the facility last winter, spoke of horrifying scenes of brutal treatment of Palestinian detainees from Gaza inside the medical tents.
“In one hospitalization tent, there were no more than 20 patients. All had their four limbs shackled to old steel beds, like the ones used in our hospitals years ago. All were conscious and all were blindfolded all the time,” the physician said, as reported by Haaretz.
According to the unnamed doctor, many of the Palestinian detainees from Gaza had recently either undergone major surgeries or suffered gunshot wounds, which they endured in some cases only hours prior to their arrival at the detention camp.
‘Palestinian Detainees Held in Prolonged, Secret Detention, Tortured and Abused’ – UN Report
The UN special rapporteur on torture, Alice Jill Edwards, has condemned the sexual assault of a Palestinian detainee by Israeli soldiers at the Sde Teiman detention center.
“This alleged sexual torture involving multiple offenders is particularly gruesome,” Edwards said on August 16. “There are no circumstances in which sexual torture or sexualized inhuman and degrading treatment can be justified.”
Leaked footage from surveillance cameras showed the detainee being picked out from a group of about 30 others lying bound and blindfolded on the ground. The detainee is then escorted to a corner where guards, trying to hide their act with shields, proceed to rape him.
(PC, Anadolu)
Be the first to comment