GAZA, (PIC)
A human rights report has revealed that prisoners inside Israeli occupation prisons are living in difficult and tragic conditions, especially since the beginning of the brutal aggression launched by the Israeli occupation forces against the Palestinian people in Gaza, the West Bank, and Jerusalem.
According to a joint report issued by the Palestinian Prisoner Association and the al-Dameer Foundation in Ramallah on Tuesday, “With the increasing number of detainees, which reached about 3,580 new Palestinians since October 7th, the Israeli occupation authorities continue to torment the prisoners as part of the comprehensive aggression and within the policy of ‘collective punishment’ against the Palestinian people.”
According to the report, Palestinian prisoners at the Ofer prison are still living in difficult conditions, suffering from overcrowding since October 7th.
The report stated that the prison administration has crammed 8-10 individuals into cells that can only accommodate six people, without providing sufficient blankets for the prisoners. Some of them are forced to sleep on the floor, while new prisoners are subjected to beatings and abuse during their arrest or transfer.
The report also mentioned that since October 7th, the prison administrations have closed the canteens inside the prisons.
Furthermore, the report revealed that the prison guards raid the sections in the Ofer prison and search them once a week, using police dogs during the repeated raids to intimidate the prisoners.
In a systematic Israeli policy of practicing “collective punishment” against them, the report indicated that the prison administration cuts off electricity to the prisoners daily from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The report also revealed that the prison administration has closed the clinics inside the prison and prevented newly arrived prisoners who have been injured or assaulted from receiving treatment.
Graveyards for the living
For its part, the Palestinian Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs Authority said in a report on Tuesday that the Israeli occupation authorities have turned their prisons into “graveyards for the living,” with increasing attacks against Palestinians since October 7th, amid extreme blackout by the prison administration to hide the crimes committed against the prisoners.
The authority stated that “The sections (in the prisons) are subjected to almost daily invasions, during which soldiers brutally attack the detainees with severe beatings, rifles, toxic gas, and rubber bullets.”
It emphasized that “Israeli wardens inside the prison sections deliberately beat the detainees violently and intentionally neglect their injuries, leaving them without treatment.”
The authority stressed that the detainees are subjected to various forms of punishment, including the absence of aluminum windows, which exposes them to extreme cold, as well as a shortage of blankets and food. It added that a large number of them sleep on the floor, are not allowed out for breaks or fresh air, and all electrical appliances, personal belongings, and clothes were taken from them.
It is worth mentioning that the prisoner exchange operation that took place during the humanitarian truce revealed the level of decency and humane treatment demonstrated by the Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, in dealing with the Israeli captives, while the Israeli ugly face was exposed to the whole world in its treatment of prisoners, including women and children, and the violation of their human rights, contrary to international treaties and conventions.
