RAMALLAH: Hundreds of Palestinians marched to protest the treatment of prisoners held in Israeli jails on Saturday, following reports of abuse and even torture.

Relatives held up pictures of prisoners and waved Palestinian flags during separate demonstrations in Ramallah and Nablus in the occupied West Bank. “Even if the whole world submits, we will not recognise Israel,” chanted the protesters in Ramallah.

Thousands of Palestinians have been detained in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel since the start of fighting between Israel and Hamas, the United Nations human rights office said this week. They have mostly been held in secret and in some cases subjected to treatment that may amount to torture, the OHCHR said in a report.

“For 10 months, we haven’t known anything about our sons,” Latifa Abu Hamid, a mother of four prisoners, all sentenced to life, said. “We want to check on them and see them. We want to know their situation […] We want our sons.”

According to the Prisoners Club, a Palestinian watchdog, about 9,700 Palestinians are currently in Israeli jails, including hundreds under administrative detention.

The NGO estimates that arrests have doubled since October 7 compared to the same period last year. The OHCHR report said that since the Hamas raid, thousands of Palestinians — including medics, patients, residents and captured fighters — have been taken from Gaza to Israel, “usually shackled and blindfolded”.

“They have generally been held in secret, without being given a reason for their detention, access to a lawyer or effective judicial review,” this week’s OHCHR report said.

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2024