The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has denounced the conditions that Israeli authorities are subjecting Palestinian detainees to at an underground prison in the city of Ramla, Al Jazeera reports.

It cited video clips released by Israeli media that showed Palestinian detainees and prisoners there chained inside underground cells without mattresses or blankets, enclosed by iron gates, and not exposed to sunlight.

Euro-Med said the Israeli claim that the prison is reserved for the most “dangerous detainees — whom Israel says are members of the Hamas elite and the Hezbollah-affiliated Radwan Forces — does not excuse the violation of international law” regarding the treatment of detainees and prisoners.

It added that Israel’s establishment of the underground prison shows that Israeli prisons and detentions are “designed to torture Palestinian detainees”. It also said that Israel’s decision to display images of prisoners and detainees there in “appalling” conditions shows the Israeli “disdain for the global justice system”.

This is a logical outcome of the long history of impunity made possible by the support that Israel enjoys from the US and several European governments, it said.