The photo published with Haaretz’s investigation into the amputation of limbs of Palestinian prisoners in Sde Teman prison (Israeli press)

Nablus

 - The Israeli occupation, with its aggression against the people of Gaza and abusing them through arrest, torture, and committing atrocities, 6 months into the war, painted a bloody scene of its attacks, especially towards prisoners and detainees, as circulating video clips documented stripping them completely of their clothes and assaulting them by beating them while they were in handcuffs and blindfolded. .

Testimonies given by Israelis about what Gaza prisoners are exposed to in the Israeli Sde Teman prison paint a more tragic picture. Witness testimonies say that Gazan prisoners in the secret "Sde Teman" had their limbs amputated due to restrictions.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz revealed in an investigation, published the day before yesterday, Thursday, that it quoted an Israeli military doctor as saying in a letter he sent to the Israeli ministers and judicial advisor, “We have all become partners in violating the law.”

Solidarity event with prisoners in Nablus (Al Jazeera)

Miserable conditions

The doctor, who works in a field hospital set up in the Gazan Detention Center in the “Sde Teman” area in the Negev Desert, revealed the legal violations that take place during their work, and added, “Just this week, two prisoners’ legs were amputated due to wounds when they were tied with handcuffs, and we are talking about something that has become normal.”

The doctor described the conditions of the Gazan prisoners as “miserable” and that unreasonable violations were being committed against them, putting them at risk of death.

The Palestinian Prisoners' Club had reported this testimony from the Israeli doctor in a statement, and confirmed its horror and that it constitutes the minimum level of ongoing crimes against Gaza detainees, in light of the continuing crime of enforced disappearance against them, since the beginning of the aggression and genocide.

The club said in a statement reached Al Jazeera Net that "Sde Teman", which was established especially for Gaza prisoners after October 7 last year, constituted a prominent example of torture operations of unprecedented intensity, and most of the crimes that were revealed were linked to it, the last of which was revealed in the amputation of the limbs of prisoners due to... Keeping them shackled and blindfolded during their detention.

What the Israeli doctor reported was “much less than what was happening in the Sde Teman camp,” according to what Palestinian journalist Diaa Al-Kahlot told Al-Jazeera Net, who was arrested for 22 days in the same prison.

Like dozens of Gazans, Al-Kahlot was arrested from his family home in the Beit Lahia project in the northern Gaza Strip on December 7, and was subjected to torture, abuse, and deprived of treatment that was not available at all during his arrest, so that his wounds remained “open, and have not yet healed.” 100 days from his release.

There was "no form of mercy" as described by Al-Kahlot in dealing with the Gazan prisoners. He says that the army arrested prisoners after they were shot and they were suffering from both conditions, and others were suffering from cancer and were not given more than a painkiller pill for treatment.

Double punishment

Journalist Diaa Al-Kahlot adds, "I saw an elderly man (77 years old) suffering from Alzheimer's who was left without care and had his head cut open the moment he was released. The occupation army called a Palestinian ambulance to transport him to a hospital in southern Gaza."

Al-Kahlot stated that the prisoners of Gaza in particular are treated by the occupation as if they were “members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad,” and thus imposes a double punishment on them, most notably “complete isolation from the world and torture leading to death.”

He added, "Throughout the period of my and other prisoners' detention for 22 days, day and night, I remained shackled and blindfolded. We slept and went to the bathroom as well."

The most dangerous thing is that Israel, according to Abdullah Al-Zaghari, head of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, has not disclosed any information about the Gazan prisoners since the Al-Aqsa flood, and continues the policy of forced disappearance against them, which confirms that it has committed major crimes, especially in the absence of any human rights and humanitarian oversight.

The occupation also used methods of torture that had never occurred to people in the Sde Teman camp, which led to the martyrdom of 27 Gazans. “Major executions” also occurred, according to the accounts of prisoners who spent months and weeks in these camps and were recently liberated, in addition to what is now reported by lawyers during their visits to the prisoners.

There are no accurate numbers for these prisoners except what was announced by the Israeli media, that approximately 690 Gazan prisoners were declared as illegal combatants, in addition to 23 children in Megiddo prison, while the Israeli newspaper Haaretz indicates that the detainees are between 600 and 800 prisoners.

Al-Zaghari stated that Gaza prisoners are isolated alone in camps in the Negev and in special sections away from West Bank prisoners, and are exposed to “death at every moment” due to the brutal attacks of the prison guards, and that the sounds of their screams are heard from other sections.

Miserable failure

In the face of this, Al-Zaghari asserts that international organizations “failed miserably” not only to stop the Israeli aggression, but also to stop the systematic torture operations under instructions from the Israeli political and military authorities, which led to the martyrdom of 14 Palestinian prisoners (other than the martyrs of the Gaza prisoners) since the war, some of whom were left bleeding until Death is like the prisoner Thaer Abu Asab, and Abd al-Rahman al-Bahsh, whose ribs were broken.

The matter did not stop at the amputation of limbs, even if they were the most horrific. Rather, the prisoners lost tens of kilograms of their weight due to the scarcity and poor quality of the food provided, and they suffered from skin diseases and skin abrasions due to lack of bathing.

Al-Zaghari stated that Israel has turned its prisons into cemeteries and slaughterhouses for prisoners, holding the international system responsible for what the prisoners are suffering, for not fulfilling its assigned role, especially the Red Cross, which has not visited any prison so far.

He said that concealing any information about Gaza prisoners, imprisoning them in secret prisons such as “Sde Teman” and “Aintut,” and preventing the Red Cross from visiting them, confirms that the occupation has crimes to hide and exposes their lives to imminent death.

Since the beginning of the war, the occupation has carried out about 8,000 arrests among Palestinians, and the number of prisoners as of the end of last February exceeded 9,100, including 3,558 administrative detainees, and 793 of the Gaza detainees classified as “unlawful combatants.”

Al-Zaghari confirms that the majority of those arrested by the occupation are civilians, as evidenced by the transfer of 50% of them to administrative detention, without charge or trial, and this is a violation of international law that criminalizes the occupation’s practices.

Source: Al Jazeera