Palestinian Journalist Reveals Torture and Abuse at Israeli Detention Camp
Palestinian journalist Mohammed Saber Arab from Gaza explained how he and other detainees were tortured, abused, and raped by the Israeli guards of Sde Teiman camp in the Negev desert. Arab finally moved to tell his story to his lawyer, Khaled Mahajneh, on a recent visit.
Arab, a correspondent for Al Araby TV, was abducted from Al-Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip while Israeli forces were launching a large-scale invasion of the strip in mid-March. The Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners Society, in a separate confirmation of Mahajneh’s visit, expounded that Arab had no info of his whereabouts until his lawyer contacted him. This statement underlined Arab’s story as one of the many terrible realizations that detainees from Gaza have about the appalling situation they are trapped in.
Arab also detailed how he was restrained, with his eyes being covered, his hands shackled, and both being done around the clock. He did not wash and was not allowed to bath for 50 days, and before the visit, he was instructed to change his pants only. Lauding the most brutal daily and hourly practices, Mr. al-Haj deliberately described the Palestinian detainees’ torture to death, physical and sexual violations, and protracted humiliation.
Inmates are not allowed to converse with others, and severe beating is meted out if they transgress this rule; hence, the prisoners have to speak to themselves and pray in low tones. Arab was able to document the detention of individuals and exclusion of any religious freedom, torture such as cutting off limbs and bullets extracted from bodies without any sign of anesthesia.
Many of the detainee accounts reported that they were accompanied by police dogs and given minimal opportunities to use the bathroom: four of the abductees were allowed one minute in the bathroom, maximum. Punishment in this organization is meted out for any activity that takes longer to complete. They sleep on the bare ground, covering themselves with clothes and even using their shoes as headrests. Washing is allowed only once a week and for one minute; more importantly, the inmates are not allowed to sleep during the day.
Israel army has statistically kidnapped more than 9,500 Palestinians in the strip since the war on Gaza, including women and children, health care providers, and civil defense teams. However, few have been received complimentary, but the rest of the hostages are still held captive.
The recent actions of Israel in occupying Palestinian territories and its policies have been strongly criticized worldwide; people have gone to the extreme of accusing Israel of genocide at the International Court of Justice, ICJ. In the ICJ’s most recent ruling, the Israeli government has been directed to cease operations in Rafah. In this southern city, Palestinian refugees of the war stood at over a million before the city was attacked on May 6.
Israel, in disregard of the UN Security Council, called for an immediate halt to the attack and pressed on with the operation in Gaza. This conflict has claimed the lives of 37,400 Palestinians, many of these being women and children, and has left more than 85,400 unreasonable. Gaza is in tatters, and mass starvation, checkpoint blockades, and lack of clean water and medical supplies reign.
Conditions in Gaza are still deplorable; there is massive destruction while conflict still rages there, making it a humanitarian crisis. From Arab’s experience, one ought to get a glimpse of the brutality that detainees from Palestine are subjected to, and much as the UN and other international bodies have tried their best, much more needs to be done to halt these violations of human rights.
