Palestinian detainees in Israel are subjected to various types of torture, according to Israeli and human rights sources (Reuters)

The private Israeli Channel 13 said that those it described as elite fighters in the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) detained in Israeli prisons "suffer severe and difficult procedures and are crowded into very small cells amidst hunger, cold and hardship."

This came in a television report broadcast by the channel about the Palestinian prisoners, whom it said were “elite” members of the “Al-Qassam” Brigades affiliated with the Hamas movement, who were arrested during the attacks of October 7, 2023.

The channel says, "Prisoners of the Hamas elite suffer from very difficult conditions, as they are always shivering from the cold, and are forced to bend their heads while sitting on the ground. The cell rooms are very small, and the beds are unmade and without covers."

On a daily basis, the jailers play loud songs in Hebrew, including the song “The People of Israel Are Alive,” inside the small cells where prisoners of the Hamas elite are crowded, according to the report.

The report shows the presence of police dogs accompanying the jailers every time they inspect these prisoners.

According to the television report, “More than 5 prisoners are confined in one very small cell, and the food provided to them is very little.”

There was no comment from the Israeli authorities or Palestinian prisoner institutions on what was broadcast by the Hebrew channel.

Israel claims that it is arresting dozens of members of the elite unit of the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Hamas movement, who participated in the Al-Aqsa Flood operation on October 7th of last year on Israeli settlements and military bases surrounding the Gaza Strip. Israel did not clarify the number of these prisoners or where they are being held.

In response to "daily Israeli attacks against the Palestinian people and their sanctities, especially Al-Aqsa Mosque," on October 7, 2023, Hamas launched the "Al-Aqsa Flood" attack against Israeli military bases and settlements in the vicinity of Gaza.

In that attack, about 1,200 Israelis were killed and about 240 were captured. Hamas exchanged about 110 of them with Israel, which holds more than 7,800 Palestinians in its prisons, during a truce that lasted a week until last December 1, with Qatari-Egyptian-American mediation.

"They don't deserve a flash of light."

Last December, Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir instructed his authorities to detain prisoners from the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in an underground prison that had not been used for years.

Ben Gvir - the leader of the far-right Jewish Power Party - said in a post on Telegram that after years of non-use, I instructed the Prisons Commissioner (Katy Perry) to reopen the underground wing for Al-Qassam detainees.

He added that these prisoners "do not deserve a drop or a flash of sunlight while our detainees (referring to Israeli prisoners and detainees held by Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip) are sitting in the tunnels of hell," he claimed.

Shocking testimonies

Earlier, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said that it had received new testimonies about Palestinian detainees from the Gaza Strip - including women and children - being subjected to severe torture and treatment that degrades human dignity, including nudity and sexual harassment or the threat thereof, calling for urgent international action to stop this. Violations.

The Observatory explained that its teams received testimonies from a group of detainees who were released during the past few days, after spending various periods of detention in which they spoke about their exposure to harsh practices, which included beating them in a “brutal and retaliatory” manner, releasing dogs at them, ghosting them for long hours, and stripping them of their clothes in a manner that detains them. Completely, depriving them of food and going to the bathroom.

The Observatory indicated that the most dangerous testimonies it received were female detainees being subjected to direct sexual harassment, explaining that a number of female detainees reported that “Israeli soldiers harassed them, including forcing them to strip naked and remove their hijab.”

"M.N" (70 years old - who requested to remain anonymous) said: "They arrested me from my home in the Al-Amal neighborhood, west of Khan Yunis. I told them that I was sick and could not move, but they did not care. They forced me to take off my clothes. They took me to a demolished house. I felt like I was being used as a shield." Humanly, they later arrested more and took us through a harsh torture journey to a detention center consisting of an iron cage.”

He added, "Every day we were beaten and insulted. We did not drink water inside the prison for 4 days. They poured water on the ground in front of us, until they tortured us while we were thirsty. All the time we sat on our knees, ate little, and went to the bathroom once, and the ghost repeatedly fell on the fence and tied up." "Hands up."

As for “KHN,” he said, “They arrested me at the checkpoint and forced me to take off my clothes. I was severely beaten. We were covered with blankets filled with water. We were unnaturally cold and did not drink water.” He continued, "The army transferred us to another place. We were subjected to different tortures. Each place had a different torture process. The officer would hit me on the head, and when I complained, he would hit me more. I could not sleep because of the cold."

M.W. said: “They arrested me from Beit Lahia, forced me to completely undress, detained me in the open with severe beatings, ransacked my body with their hands, and hung me by my legs from the ceiling. I was subjected to shabeh for 4 to 6 hours a day.” He added: "They threatened to rape my family, and asked for information that I did not know. They were forcing us to insult certain factions and personalities and to cheer for Israel, and to say that the dog that is allowed to maul us is the crown of our head."

“G” reported: “They arrested me at the checkpoint on the Salah al-Din Road during my displacement. They asked me to go to a sand berm, where they put a blindfold on my eyes, searched me with their hands, and asked me about Hamas and the tunnels. Then they moved me to an open place, then they took me to a detention center. They forced me to I took off my clothes. There were soldiers looking and making mean comments. They gave me only “tring” (home clothes) and no underwear to wear.”

She added: "In detention, I was subjected to interrogation several times. Each time before that, I was stripped naked by female soldiers who would put their hands on me and crowd me, and the soldiers would sometimes look and comment. There were harsh insults that I could not say, and threats of indecent assault."

The devastating Israeli war on Gaza since October 7 has left tens of thousands dead and injured, most of them women and children, massive destruction of infrastructure and an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe, according to the Gaza Strip authorities and the United Nations.

Source: Al Jazeera + Anatolia + Israeli press