Since it began bombing the beleaguered Gaza Strip two weeks ago, Israel has detained a large number of Palestinians. Actually, the number of Palestinian prisoners held in jail by Tel Aviv has doubled.
Before October 7, there were around 5,200 Palestinian people detained in Israeli jails. Israel conducted a persistent bombing operation in retaliation for the attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Over 10,000 captives are now being held, according to Palestinian authorities, who made the announcement three days ago. Israeli authorities have detained some 4,000 workers from Gaza over the previous two weeks. The prisoners were employed in Israel. They are detained by Israel in military facilities. Additionally, during midnight Israeli operations in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, 1,070 additional Palestinians were detained.
Sahar Francis, the leader of the Addameer prisoners’ rights organization located in Ramallah, told media that “detentions are happening 24 hours a day.” According to her, the majority of the Gaza residents are being detained at a military facility named Sde Teyman next to Beer al-Sabe (Be’er Sheva) in the southern Naqab desert.
Numerous additional prisoners are being kept at occupied East Jerusalem’s Anatot military camp and the Ofer jail near Ramallah. Palestinian attorneys and government representatives have drawn attention to the extreme abuse and appalling circumstances in which prisoners are being taken into custody and detained.
The chairman of the PA’s Commission for Detainees’ Affairs stated that recent occurrences involving inmates are “unprecedented” and “dangerous” at a news conference. “We hesitated a lot about holding this press conference addressing yet another chapter of Israeli crimes, on what our male and female prisoners are being exposed to in the occupation’s prisons, for fear of creating tension and anxiety among the families of prisoners, and our Palestinian people in general,” Qadura Fares asserted.
Prisoners under Dire Condition
Addameer noted that access to medical treatment was restricted. According to the rights organization, they also closed the prison healthcare centers and forbade inmates from visiting hospitals and outside clinics, despite the fact that some detainees are cancer patients who need ongoing care.
Approximately 6,000 Palestinians are detained in Israeli prisons and detention facilities in addition to the 4,000 people who lived in the Gaza Strip. The Sde Teyman military camp is where the latter group is primarily detained.
Most of the 5,200 people who were imprisoned before October 7 are citizens of the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. But over the last fortnight, 1,070 more Palestinians were captured by the Israeli military during nighttime military operations in those regions.
Human rights organizations claim that Israel is keeping the detainees in custody under several legal guises. Palestinian citizens of the Gaza Strip who were detained within Israel are being kept in detention under the “Unlawful Combatants Law.” The rule permits authorities to hold Palestinian people without proper judicial oversight for an unlimited period of time.
An “unlawful combatant” is someone who has taken part in hostile activities against the State of Israel, whether personally or not, according to the law. The legislation also applies to anybody who participates in a group that commits crimes against the State of Israel. Israel amended the law on October 13, 6 days after the start of war, to make it considerably simpler to detain Palestinians based on a simple suspicion.
