Palestinians Ask Diplomats to Speak Out on Conditions in Israeli Jails
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories: The Palestinian Authority has urged diplomats to intervene in what it has described as a tolerable situation for the prisoners in Israeli detention facilities. During a meeting on Wednesday in area B in the occupied West Bank, Varsen State for foreign affairs, Aghabekian Shahin pointed out the awful conditions of detainees.
Shahin invited mainly European diplomats and representatives of international organisations to the discussion, during which they were presented with a three-minute video devoted to Palestinians Recently detained by Israel. Specifically, the footage was concerned with alleged ill-treatment and torture in Israeli detention centres, charges which Israeli officials have dismissed.
“This is unacceptable; this is against all human rights laws, and it needs to stop,” Shahin told the meeting in Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority. She focused on the fact that a prisoner’s treatment is of concern to Palestinians, and it should be the same for anyone internationally.
The Palestinian foreign ministry said, quoting data from advocates and rights organisations, that Israel detains more than 9,600 Palestinians at the moment. Increasing numbers of people have been arrested besides the escalating raids by the Israeli military in the West Bank since the event that Hamas attacked on October 7 and the outbreak of the Gaza war.
In connection with the conflict, the Israeli prison authority introduced an emergency. The prison situation worsened, and the visits to the jailed persons were restricted. The document made available at the Wednesday session stated that 18 prisoners have been “killed” in Israeli prisons since October 7.
The Director of the Palestinian Prisoners Club, a Palestinian non-governmental organisation focusing on the defence of prisoners’ rights, Qadura Fares, avowed a lack of easy access to information about detainees, including those arrested in Gaza since the beginning of the war. He said most of these detainees have probably been freed but emphasised the call for international human rights bodies to intervene.
“I believe the international community has the tools to help stop what is happening,” Fares said at the meeting. “Well, do you see if international society can halt what is happening?”
In December, the Israeli military launched a probe into the deaths of several Palestinians arrested in Gaza held at the Sde Teiman base near Beersheva.
Some of the diplomats present during the meeting in Ramallah said they were not willing to comment when approached by the AFP reporter. Last week, a spokeswoman for the United Nations rights office said that she was concerned, adding that they have been receiving very worrying, very distressing reports of how Israeli forces are treating Palestinian detainees since October 7.
