The British newspaper The Guardian revealed that Palestinian prisoners in an Israeli prison in the Negev Desert are subjected to systematic torture, causing many of them to suffer serious health complications.
The newspaper said in a report on Friday that the hands of detainees in Timan Prison remain shackled all the time, and that at least one of the detainees had his hand amputated due to being constantly shackled.
The Guardian quoted two of those who work in the prison as saying that the prisoners are tied up even inside the hospitals where they are transferred blindfolded, and they are in difficult health conditions and their rights are violated.
The newspaper added that the detention center, which is located about 29 kilometers from Gaza, consists of two parts, the first of which is a fenced area inside which about 200 Palestinians are detained in what resembles cages, and the other area is a field hospital of tents inside which dozens of wounded prisoners and those deprived of painkillers are held. the pain.
Systematic torture
The field hospital witnesses “surgical operations” being performed on detainees on stretchers, in the absence of the necessary health conditions.
According to a prison guard’s account to the Guardian, all the detainees in the field hospital were handcuffed, blindfolded and semi-naked, and some of them underwent amputation of limbs, while some of them underwent major abdominal or chest surgeries.
A medical staff member told Ghadrian that he attended a painful medical procedure for a patient without painkillers.
The sources confirmed to the newspaper that the patients were citizens of Gaza who were captured by the occupation army from inside Gaza hospitals and brought to the prison, groaning in pain.
According to the same sources, detainees are forced to stand for long hours or kneel, are subjected to severe beatings with batons, and are not even able to move their heads or speak inside the prison.
Speaking to the Guardian, the sources continued that the floor of the detention center is dirty, and the bad smell spreads throughout the place to the point that the workers come wearing sanitary masks.
One of them added, “Sometimes you hear the sound of screaming and intense beating, so much so that it seems as if the beating is coming from a metal wall due to the intensity of the sound.”
No proof
The source explained to Ghadrian that nutrition is very poor inside the prison, as some detainees received one cucumber, a few slices of bread, and some cheese, stressing that signs of malnutrition are clear on the bodies of the detainees.
What makes matters worse – according to the sources who spoke to the British newspaper – is that the occupation army does not have proof that the detainees belong to the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), for example, so most of them were considered suspects, and some of them were released without any formal charges being brought against them.
According to the sources, this detention camp can be considered a temporary detention and settlement camp.
“Ghadrian” quoted the organization Physicians for Human Rights – which called for the closure of this detention camp – as saying that the Israeli army has classified all residents of Gaza since the beginning of the war as “irregular combatants,” which is an intentional classification to deprive them of the privileges of “prisoners of war.”
The newspaper’s report spoke about the case of Izz al-Din al-Banna (34 years old), who died in an Israeli medical center last February after he was transferred to him from Teman detention center, noting that he relied on a wheelchair to move around.
The Guardian explains that the occupation army responded to all these accusations by saying that among the detainees were dangerous fighters whose hands were tied according to the level of danger they represented.
The occupation army added that it treats the detainees “in an appropriate manner and with complete care.”