The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Observatory said that it received new testimonies of systematic torture and cruel and inhuman treatment to which Palestinian detainees – some of whom are forcibly disappeared – from the Gaza Strip are subjected to Israeli occupation army camps.
The Observatory explained in its report that testimonies it received from people who were detained for several days and then released show that the army and Shin Bet investigators treated the detainees as “non-human animals,” according to what they told them during their interrogation and torture.
According to testimonies, torture begins immediately after arrest, whether from home or asylum centers, as it begins with beatings and forcing them to remove their clothes and keep their underwear on, before forcing the detainees to sit in the street for hours, amid insults and insults that degrade their dignity.
Some of the released detainees stated that they were forced to “cursing themselves and insulting Palestinian factions and figures,” before they were transported in trucks in “terrifying conditions” to open detention places where the detainees were “beaten and abused.”
Random arrests
The Observatory documented in its report published – today, Saturday – that the occupation army launched random arrest campaigns that targeted hundreds of Palestinian civilians from different areas of the Gaza Strip after storming residential homes and schools that turned into shelter centers for thousands of displaced people.
The arrest campaigns targeted doctors, nurses, journalists, and the elderly, as well as dozens of women, including Hadeel Youssef Issa Al-Dahdouh, who appeared in a photo in which she was taken inside a truck with a group of naked men in an inhumane scene.
A released detainee (who preferred to remain anonymous) said that most of the detainees are later detained in camps for the occupation army and not for the prison administration. He added that once they are transferred, the detainees are forced to remain inside iron cages in a cold atmosphere, and in many cases detainees were subjected to “ghost” operations. Or “suspended by the hands and feet in various positions, tortured by electric shock, or intentional burning with cigarette butts, as well as brutal beatings throughout the body.”
Detainees from Gaza, including Mrs. Hadeel Al-Dahdoug (Reuters) “Guantánamo” is Israeli
According to what was reported by the Observatory, the “Sde Teman” camp, which is run by the occupation army and is located between the cities of Beersheba and Gaza, where the majority of the Strip’s detainees are held, has turned into a new “Guantánamo” prison in which the dignity of detainees is violated and the worst forms of torture and abuse are practiced against them while depriving them of food and treatment. .
He stated in his report published – today, Saturday – that he documented the arrest of elderly men and women, as he confirmed the arrest of a woman over the age of 80, and other elderly people over the age of 70.
Euro-Med confirmed that it had received testimonies about the death of two detainees inside the camp, one of whom had an amputated foot, and Israel had not officially announced – until the time the statement was published – their deaths.
On November 3, 2023, Mansour Nabhan Muhammad Warsh died of a heart attack 24 days after his arrest, and traces of bruises and shackles appeared on his body.
Four days later, Majed Ahmed Zaqoul died after being detained in Ofer prison and subjected to severe torture.
Human shields
In a testimony by Jihad Zaqout (75 years old), he said that the occupation forces arrested him from his home in Gaza City on December 12, 2023. He was beaten and kicked by the occupation soldiers and then tied with iron baskets, before they used him as a human shield by placing him in a A residential house inside an area witnessing military operations.
“Zakout” reported that while he was being transported from the area with other detainees in a truck, the soldiers continued to beat them on the heads along the way with rifle butts and their hands.
When they arrived at an army camp that contained hundreds of detainees, they were stripped of their clothes and forced to sleep on the floor without a mattress, while they were allowed to go to the bathroom once every two or three days, deprived of medication and subjected to beatings from time to time.