GENEVA: In the shadow of the Israeli aggression in Gaza, record numbers of Palestinian detainees are filling Israeli prisons, where they face “systemic abuse” and torture, rights advocates warn, calling for international action.

Members of several Israeli NGOs travelled to Geneva this week to raise concerns before the United Nations about a major “crisis” inside the country’s prisons. “We are extremely, extremely concerned,” said Tal Steiner, the executive director of the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI). “What we’re looking at is a crisis,” she said.

She said nine people had allegedly died behind bars since Oct 7, according to Israeli sources. And “there are almost 10,000 Palestinians in Israeli custody right now... a 200-per cent increase from any normal year”.

While the UN and others have long raised concerns about conditions for Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons, Steiner said the situation had worsened dramatically since crisis erupted in Gaza.

Nine people have died behind bars since Oct 7

“During the military onslaught on Gaza, there’s been a crisis within Israeli detention facilities and prisons that has been really left ignored,” said Miriam Azem of the Adalah legal centre. The centre is dedicated to protecting the rights of Israel’s Palestinian citizens. Her organisation had managed to document “19 clear cases” of torture within the Israeli prison system just since Oct 7, including sexual violence, she said.

“We’re seeing really widespread and systemic use of many, many tools in order to inflict torture and ill-treatment on Palestinians.” This crisis, she said, “requires the immediate intervention of the international community”. Steiner agreed, warning that this was “an ongoing crisis”. “People are (suffering) in detention right now... An urgent intervention is very much needed.”

The Israeli Prison Service said: “All prisoners are detained according to the law.” The service was “not aware of the claims”, against it, a spokesperson said, but stressed that any complaints filed by detainees “will be fully examined and addressed by official authorities”.

The NGOs also voiced alarm at reported conditions inside the military camps holding those detained inside Gaza. At least 27 Palestinians have reportedly died in such camps since October, Steiner said, adding that this was “unprecedented and extremely severe”.

There was no access to the camps, nor had her organisation, or foreign journalists, been permitted to enter Gaza to speak with those released, she said. But reports relying on testimony from former camp inmates suggest that detainees are often held “in open-air cages”, where “they are handcuffed and blindfolded 24 hours a day”.

Prisoners reportedly had to sleep on the floor of the cages in the cold, were beaten, and deprived of medical care, she added.

Published in Dawn, March 17th, 2024