Extent of Israel’s Systematic Torture of Palestinian Detainees ‘Shocking’: Rights group

Occupied Palestine (Quds News Network)- The physical and mental health conditions of the Palestinian detainees freed during the seventh batch of the exchange deal under the Gaza ceasefire agreement is ‘shocking’, the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said in a statement.

“The repeated release of such visibly unhealthy individuals from Israeli prisons reveals that the heinous torture and willful medical neglect they endure have escalated to appalling levels,” the group said.

The organization said the effects of torture were evident, with the emaciated bodies of the released individuals reflecting the severity of “systematic crimes and inhumane treatment that exceed all legal and moral bounds,” including deprivation of necessary medical care and treatment.

“The atrocities occurring in these prisons are among the worst violations recorded by human rights organizations worldwide,” the group said.

Along with severe weakness and exhaustion, the Euro-Med Monitor field team documented severe injuries among detainees, including limb amputations and severe swelling brought on by torture. Some appeared incapable of walking without the assistance of friends, and others required immediate medical attention because their health was rapidly deteriorating.

Even though the majority of detainees were not charged with any specific crimes, many of them said that they were “beaten, mistreated, and threatened right up until the very last minute before their release.”

Since being abducted from the Gaza Strip at various points following 7 October 2023, they “were arrested or detained, tortured, and subjected to degrading treatment as part of a systematic policy designed to cause them severe physical and psychological harm.”

The rights group said this policy is a part of Israel’s crime of “genocide, which aims to destroy the Palestinian people in the Strip, either entirely or partially, by weakening the foundations of their survival and leading them to submission or extinction.”

Furthermore, the Euro-Med Monitor team documented Israel’s ongoing use of psychological torture and humiliation against recently released detainees “through the enforcement of laws that directly incite violence and genocide.”

One example of these measures is the Israeli prison authorities’ forcing newly released detainees to wear vests with official Israeli Prison Service slogans and threatening phrases in Hebrew, including religious quotations that express the principle of revenge and pursuit until liquidation. Additionally, they are forced to wear plastic wristbands with derogatory words printed on them to psychologically degrade them and highlight the fact that they are still being singled out despite being “free”.

The phrase “I will pursue my enemies and overtake them; I will not return until I have destroyed them” is printed on the vests of Palestinian detainees who have been released, and is taken from a biblical passage (Psalm 18:37) that expressly calls for killing and genocide. This is a form of direct and public incitement to genocide, which is forbidden by Article 3 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

The group said that Israel’s depriving the Palestinians of their humanity and treating them as a legitimate target for killing and targeting “go beyond psychological warfare and constitute a dangerous extension of institutional hate speech and a consolidation of the intention to commit genocide.”

Israel’s crimes against detainees also include “the killing of Palestinians and the infliction of severe physical and psychological harm, including torture, other forms of ill-treatment, and sexual violence, including rape, and are carried out to eradicate the Palestinian people as a whole.”