(Ramallah) The Palestinian Authority on Wednesday called on diplomats meeting in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank to condemn the conditions of detention by Israel of thousands of Palestinian prisoners.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry invited representatives of many countries, including European ones, and international organizations to watch three minutes of testimonies from Palestinians who have been detained in Israeli prisons in recent months.
Images and interviews collected by media outlets report mistreatment such as water deprivation, but also accounts of torture and humiliation; accusations that Israeli authorities reject.
“This is against all human rights laws and it must stop,” said Varsen Aghabekian Shahin, the Palestinian Authority’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs. “This is an issue that concerns us greatly,” she continued, “and we hope it concerns the rest of the world as well.”
Citing figures from Palestinian NGOs defending prisoners, the minister stated that around 9,600 Palestinians were being held by Israel. The charges are multiple: organizing attacks, murder, sometimes indirect calls for violence on social networks, etc.
The situation has deteriorated significantly since the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023 in Israel, which triggered a deadly war in the Gaza Strip. Israeli prison authorities then announced a “state of emergency in prison”, which resulted in a tightening of detention conditions, including the end of visits to the visiting room.
In a report delivered at the meeting, the Palestinian ministry said 18 prisoners had been “killed” in Israeli jails since October 7.
Qaddura Fares, the president of the Prisoners Club, a Palestinian NGO, also expressed concern about the fate of those arrested in the Gaza Strip since the war: thousands according to him, most of whom he believes have been released.
The Israeli army announced in December the opening of an investigation following the death in custody of several Palestinians arrested in the Gaza Strip since October 7.
“I think the international community has the tools to put an end to what is happening,” Fares said.
He listed several measures to be taken by international diplomacy, including statements of condemnation or the summoning of Israeli ambassadors.
Asked by AFP, several invited diplomats did not wish to respond.
On July 3, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said it had “received very disturbing and distressing reports about the treatment of Palestinian detainees by Israeli forces since October 7.”