During the ceasefire, Palestinians released from Israeli prisons with psychological and physical scars By Reuters
By Nidal al-Mughrabi, Maytaal Angel and Ali Sawafta
CAIRO/JERUSALEM/RAMALLAH (Reuters) – Once muscular and strong, Palestinian bodybuilder Moazaz Obaiyat’s nine months in Israeli detention left him unable to walk without assistance when he was released in July. When he raided his house before dawn in October, the soldiers arrested him again.
Before he was re-arrested, the 37-year-old father of five was diagnosed with severe PTSD at Bethlehem Psychiatric Hospital, related to his time in Israel’s remote Ktz’iot prison, according to medical notes seen by Reuters at the hospital, a community. A clinic in the West Bank in use.
The notes say that Obaiyat was subjected to “physical and mental violence” in prison and described symptoms including extreme anxiety, withdrawing from his family and avoiding discussing painful events and current affairs.
Alleged torture and psychological harm to Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons and camps has been refocused amid intensified efforts in December by international mediators to end the shooting that could see the release of thousands of prisoners held during the Gaza war and before, in return. of Israeli hostages held by the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza.
If the prisoners are freed in any future deal, many will “need long-term medical care to recover from the physical and mental abuse they have endured,” said Qadoura Fares, head of the Palestinian Commission for Prisoners and Detainees. Affairs, a government organization in the West Bank. Fares said he is aware of Obaiyat’s case.
For this story, Reuters spoke to four Palestinian men who have been detained by Israel since the outbreak of war after a Hamas attack on October 7, 2023. All were detained for months, accused of association with an illegal organization, and released without formal charges or convictions. of any crime.
They all described permanent psychological scars they attributed to abuse including beatings, sleep and food deprivation and being held for long periods of time in stressful positions during their time inside. Reuters could not independently confirm the conditions under which they were held.
Their accounts are consistent with numerous investigations by human rights groups that have reported widespread abuse of Palestinians in Israeli detention.
An investigation published by the United Nations human rights office in August described confirmed reports of “torture, sexual abuse and rape, among brutal conditions” in prisons since the war began. The UN office also said that the attack by Hamas on October 7 may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The White House called reports of abuse, rape and torture in Israeli prisons “serious”.
In response to questions from Reuters, Israel’s military said it was investigating several cases of abuse of Gazan prisoners by soldiers but “clearly” rejected allegations of systematic torture in its facilities.
The military declined to comment on individual cases. The Israel Prison Service (IPS), under the hard-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, and the country’s internal security service said they were not in a position to comment on individual cases.
“Terrorists in Israeli prisons are provided with supervised living conditions and living quarters suitable for criminals,” Ben Gvir’s office said in response to questions from Reuters, adding that the facilities operate in accordance with the law. “The ‘summer camp’ is over,” said Ben Gvir’s office.
Tal Steiner, executive director of the Israeli human rights organization Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI), said that the symptoms described by the men are common and can echo the lives of the victims, often destroying their families.
“Torture in Israeli prisons has exploded since October 7. It will have a devastating effect on Palestinian society,” Steiner said.
Speaking from his hospital bed in July, an emaciated Obaiyat called his and other inmates’ treatment “disgusting,” showing the scars on his disfigured legs and describing isolation, hunger, handcuffs and torture with iron rods, without giving details.
Photos of Obaiyat taken before his arrest show a powerfully built man.
On December 19, the Israeli Supreme Court ordered the state to respond to a petition brought by rights groups regarding the lack of adequate food for Palestinian prisoners.
Israel also reported ill-treatment of some of its 251 citizens who were exiled to Gaza after the Hamas attack. A report by the Israeli Ministry of Health, published on Saturday, said that the hostages were tortured, including sexual and psychological torture. Hamas has repeatedly denied abusing the hostages.
WITHOUT PAYMENT
Obaiyat is currently being held in a small facility in Etzion, south of Bethlehem, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, an advocacy group.
He has been held for six months in “administrative detention”, which is a form of detention without charge or trial, and the official reason for his detention is unknown, the group said. Israel’s military, internal security and prison service did not respond to questions about his specific case.
PCATI said at least 56 Palestinians have died in custody during the war, compared to one or two a year in the years preceding the conflict. The Israeli military has said it is launching a criminal investigation into all Palestinian deaths in custody.
The number of Palestinian prisoners has at least doubled in Israel and the West Bank to more than 10,000 during the war, PCATI estimates, based on court documents and data obtained through freedom of information requests.
During the war, about 6,000 Gazans were arrested, the Israeli military said in response to a question from Reuters.
Unlike the Palestinians from the West Bank who are held under martial law, the Palestinians from Gaza are held in Israel under its Illegal Law.
This law has been used to detain people incommunicado, deprive them of their rights as prisoners of war or as prisoners under martial law, and detain them for long periods of time without charge or trial, according to Professor Neve Gordon, an Israeli human rights expert. and international law at Queen Mary University of London.
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club likened the detention to enforced disappearance.
Israel’s prison service declined to comment on the number of prisoners and deaths.
SDE TEIMAN CAMP
Fadi Ayman Mohammad Radi, 21, a former engineering student from Khan Younis, Gaza, was one of the few Palestinians released from Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza on August 20.
Radi described struggling to stretch his limbs after being arrested and detained for four months at the Israeli military camp Sde Teiman, which is an official sorting facility for temporary detainees.
“They didn’t interrogate us, they destroyed us,” said Radi.
Located in the Negev desert, Sde Teiman has been the site of many incidents of violence, including rape, according to allegations made by the camp’s guards.
Israel is currently investigating what the UN calls a “horrific case” of alleged sexual abuse in Sde Teiman where five soldiers are accused of brutally penetrating a prisoner with a stick and piercing his internal organs.
Radi said he was beaten repeatedly and against his will, permanently restrained and blindfolded, hanged due to pressure and forced to sit on the ground almost always without moving.
At one point, he said he was sleep-deprived for five days in a row in what he said the Israeli army called a ‘disco room,’ under loud music. He did not describe sexual violence.
Radi said he was finding it difficult to sleep and talking about his grief made him remember.
“Every time I say these words, I visualize torture,” said Radi, who was arrested by Israeli forces in Gaza on March 4.
Reuters could not independently verify his story. The Israeli military said it could not comment, saying it could not obtain Radi’s files because Reuters could not provide his identification number.
Despite the government’s decision to eliminate Sde Teiman, the camp is still operating, PCATI said.
OFER AND KTZ’IOT
Widespread abuse was also reported in more established facilities, such as Ktz’iot prison, also in the Negev, and the Ofer military camp, south of Ramallah in the West Bank.
After gathering testimony and testimony from 55 former Palestinian prisoners, the Israeli rights group B’Tselem earlier this year released a report accusing Israel of deliberately turning the prison system into a ‘network of concentration camps’.
Using the emergency law introduced after the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, Ben Gvir, a hardline minister, ordered that conditions be eased for ‘security prisoners’, a category that includes all Palestinians.
Human rights expert Gordon likens what he says is the use of torture in Israeli prisons to terrorism.
“Terrorism is usually an act limited to the number of people directly affected, but the psychological effect is staggering. It’s the same as torture,” said Gordon, who co-edited a book on torture in Israel’s prison system.
