Senior Palestinian politician says Israel torturing Gaza abductees
A senior Palestinian official says testimonies from released Palestinian abductees from the besieged Gaza Strip reveal they had been subjected to torture by Israeli forces.
Mustafa Barghouti, the head of the Palestinian National Initiative party, said in a statement on Wednesday that the abductees were subjected to all forms of beatings and ill-treatment during their detention.
“More than a thousand detainees, including the director of al-Shifa Hospital, are being subjected to brutal torture and severe beatings,” Barghouti said in a statement, adding that a number of elderly and sick prisoners died as a result.
“The Israeli interrogators use torture with electricity, waterboarding, hanging stress positions, and psychological pressure.”
“The detainees are held in barracks that are unfit for life, exposed to the cold, and are given scarce food,” Barghouti said. “No one, including the Red Cross, is allowed to contact them or know anything about them."
Prisoners reported many Palestinian detainees were killed by torture including methods like electric shocks and “ water torture” . Prisoners are kept in terrible conditions in cold weather and little food and without legal process. Red cross and lawyers have no access to them.
— Mustafa Barghouti @Mustafa_Barghouti (@MustafaBarghou1) December 20, 2023
The testimonies came from abductees who said they were held in a makeshift detention camp in Beersheba, also known as Bir as-Sab.
A Geneva-based rights group recently called for an urgent international investigation into torture and murder of Palestinian abductees held in Israel’s “Guantanamo-like” jails.
In a statement released on Monday, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said it had gathered testimonies confirming recent reports in Israeli media about the regime’s field execution of the Gaza abductees.
The Sde Teman Israeli army camp has been turned into “a new Guantanamo-like prison,” where detainees lose their lives after being subjected to extreme torture and mistreatment, it added.
The Israeli army uses open-air chicken coops to house the inmates and withhold food or drink for long periods of time.
The rights group also noted that the Palestinians held in Sde Teman are caged in inhumane conditions, blindfolded and subjected to harsh interrogations with their hands tied.
The testimonies affirm that multiple elderly abductees endured cruel beatings and humiliating treatment, Euro-Med said.
One of the released detainees has said that he witnessed Israeli soldiers directly shooting and killing five abductees in separate incidents.
Earlier, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported the deaths of six Palestinians in Israeli prisons since the beginning of Israel’s ongoing bloody war on Gaza.
It added that Just 71 out of 500 Palestinians arrested during the Gaza war have been brought before Israeli courts, and that the remaining detainees have been moved to prisons run by the Israeli Prison Service or to detention facilities run by the regime’s so-called internal security service, Shin Bet.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects any truce in Gaza and threatens to continue with the genocidal war until Hamas is eliminated.
Earlier, Israeli media said Tel Aviv had informed Qatar about its willingness for a temporary truce
Head of Hamas' political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh said the Palestinian resistance remains firm in its battle against the Israeli military as the regime’s genocidal war on Gaza continues for 75 days.
The Israeli regime unleashed its war for the stated goal of releasing its captives and eliminating the Hamas resistance movement. Neither of the goals have been achieved.
Dozens of Palestinians have fallen victim to a fresh round of Israeli airstrikes across the besieged Gaza strip.
Since the start of the offensive, the Israeli regime has killed at least 20,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 52,586 others. Thousands more are also missing and presumed dead under the rubble.
US claims it’d freeze arms supplies to Israel upon full-scale invasion of Rafah
Israel uses negotiations as cover for Rafah invasion: Hamas
Israel alleges killing ‘Hamas’ naval commander’
VIDEO | Iranians celebrate National Girls’ Day in Lady Fatima Masoumah’s Holy Shrine
Student protests continue across Europe; UN to vote on Palestinian statehood
Houthi: Yemen to target Israel-linked ships regardless of destination
UK holds firm on arms exports to Israel despite Rafah invasion
Putin says Russia’s nuclear forces ‘always on alert’
New York Times’ Pulitzer Prize for Gaza war coverage a travesty of journalism
Campus protests: Iran says US, Europe value Israel above human rights
VIDEO | Academia, media, states should be active players against Zionist project
This makes it easy to access the Press TV website
