Palestinian groups demand international investigation into abuse in Israeli prisons

Palestinian groups on Monday called for an international investigation to look into the conditions of Palestinians in Israeli jails following the gang-rape of a Palestinian detainee by Israeli soldiers in the Israeli Sde Teiman Prison.

In a statement cited by the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, the head of the official Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Commission, Qadura Fares, urged the international community to, “urgently intervene to stop the unprecedented crimes committed against Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails.”

According to Israel’s Army Radio, 10 soldiers were detained for questioning as part of an investigation into the gang-rape of a Palestinian detainee from Gaza in the Sde Teiman Prison in southern Israel.

“The farce that the occupation military police came up with, and their detention of several soldiers aim to mislead world public opinion,” he said.

Fares affirmed that the Israeli crimes against Palestinian detainees, “no longer have any conceivable limits, and they constitute a facet of the ongoing genocide.”

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Hamas group also urged for an international probe to look into the Israeli violations against detainees in light of the gang-rape incident.

“We demand an international investigation committee to investigate these horrific and brutal crimes against the prisoners,” Hamas said.

It stressed the necessity for the world, the UN, and rights groups to turn their attention, “to the (Israeli) occupation prisons and disappeared people in them to follow up their condition and unknown fate.”

Several reports emerged of severe abuses against Palestinian detainees at the notorious facility since the start of Israel’s ongoing offensive on the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli army is believed to have detained thousands of Palestinians, including women, children, and medics since Oct. 7, 2023.

In recent months, the army has released dozens of Palestinian detainees from Gaza in deteriorating health conditions, with their bodies bearing torture scars.

Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by the Palestinian group Hamas.

More than 39,360 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and nearly 91,000 injured, according to local health authorities.

Over nine months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.