Released Gaza detainees allege torture by Israel amid war

JERUSALEM: Blindfolded, beaten and sometimes bitten by dogs, Gazans released from Israeli prisons allege being tortured amid the Israel-Hamas war, which rights groups say has worsened conditions for detainees.

Mohammed Abu Salmiya, former director of Al-Shifa, Gaza’s biggest hospital, is the latest to report mistreatment by Israel.

Salmiya, one among dozens of detainees freed Monday, said “several inmates died in interrogation centres and were deprived of food and medicine.”

Israel’s army and Shin Bet intelligence service have not responded to his account, though they have rejected past accusations.

While the United Nations and others have long raised concerns about conditions for Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons, rights groups say legal changes since the Gaza war erupted have aggravated the situation.

AFP interviewed some of the 50 prisoners taken to Kamal Adwan Hospital in the Gaza Strip after their release by Israel on June 11.

“I was beaten day and night. Our eyes were blindfolded, our hands and feet shackled and they set dogs on us,” Mahmud al-Zaanin, 37, recounted from his hospital bed, noting the beatings sometimes targeted his genitals.

The United Nations has called Israel’s treatment of prisoners “unacceptable”.

Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the UN human rights commissioner, told AFP: “We have received reports of torture, mistreatment, handcuffing, deprivation of food, of water of medication, and these are very worrying reports.

“We have raised them directly with the Israeli authorities and we have asked for a transparent investigation.”
Authorities did not respond to AFP questions.

In May, the Israeli army said it “rejects outright” allegations in a US media report of stripping, sexually abusing and electrocuting detainees during interrogations.

The army acknowledged there have been 36 deaths, attributing them to detainees who were sick or had been wounded in the war.

It said the military adheres to Israeli and international law, emphasising that detainees released to Gaza “are under the control of a terrorist organisation that can force them to provide false information”.

After Hamas’s attacks, Israel’s parliament amended detention rules.

Changes to the Unlawful Combatants Law in December have been used to detain Palestinians in special camps, including Sde Teiman in the Negev desert where Salmiya was held.

Israel can now detain prisoners for 45 days without an administrative process, compared with 96 hours previously.

Prisoners can be held for 75 days without a court hearing, up from 14 days, and this can be extended to 180 days.

Judges can prevent a detainee from contacting a lawyer.

“Some detainees have not been visited by a lawyer for more than eight months and are being tried via Zoom without being brought to court and without lawyers,” said Tal Steiner, director of the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel.

Steiner’s group knew of three camps where detainees were shackled 24 hours a day in open cages.

“We believe in the law to help change these violations, so we have filed a petition,” said Steiner.

The government has not issued a formal response.

A state attorney told a supreme court hearing in May, however, that there were 2,000 Gazan detainees classified as “unlawful combatants” under permanent detention orders, meaning they have been held for over 45 days.

Hundreds are awaiting indictment, the attorney added, while more than 1,500 have been released and returned to Gaza

-AFP