THE United Nations has heard testimonies about the “disturbing” escalation in the scale and severity of violence committed by Israeli authorities against Palestinian detainees.
The Palestinian Return Centre (PRC), an organisation which holds special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council, submitted a briefing to the UN which revealed an increase in brutality against Palestinian detainees since October 7, 2023.
The briefing is based on a documented testimony by Khaled Mahajneh, a lawyer affiliated with the Palestinian Authority’s Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, and outlines Israel’s use of systematic torture methods against Palestinian detainees.
Testimony highlighted various torture methods inflicted on detainees, including severe beatings, deliberate starvation, prolonged suspension in painful positions, medical neglect leading to death, attacks with dogs, and the amputation of limbs without anesthesia.
According to the briefing, the accounts have been corroborated by international human rights organisations such as Physicians for Human Rights–Israel and B’Tselem.
Among the findings, there is a documented case of rape committed by an Israeli prison guard against a Palestinian detainee inside a detention facility.
PRC said that the majority of Gaza detainees are held in undisclosed military sites, such as the Anatot and Sde Teiman camps, without access to legal counsel or visits by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
The organisation added that Palestinians held at undisclosed military sites have a heightened risk of being tortured and abused due to being outside the reach of legal oversight.
The briefing further noted that Israeli authorities employ “politically motivated and discriminatory classifications”, labelling Gaza detainees as “unlawful combatants” or “terrorists,” which denies them the protections of international humanitarian law.
Following the findings PRC has called for the urgent establishment of an independent international investigation into the documented abuse of detained Palestinians, particularly the use of torture and sexual violence by Israeli authorities.
The organisation has also called for the inclusion of the crimes in existing case files brought before the International Criminal Court and has urged the international community to apply pressure on Israel to comply with minimum international standards for the treatment of prisoners.
PRC stressed that the protection of Palestinian detainees is not merely a humanitarian concern and warned that continued silence or token condemnation amounts to “political complicity” in the ongoing crimes against Palestinians.
