360 Palestinian children and 84 women are spending the Eid al-Adha holiday in Israeli prisons, away from their families and suffering from deprivation, abuse and neglect.
In total 9,400 Palestinians are in Israeli custody, amid reports of widespread and systematic abuse and torture, as well as deprivation of food and other essentials.
In a statement, Abdullah Al-Zaghari, the head of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, said that “the number of child prisoners in Israeli prisons stands at around 360 children, including three girls, in addition to 84 female prisoners, among them dozens of mothers who the occupation took away from their children and families”.
Al-Zaghari said that Israel is targeting prisoners “in an unprecedented manner through an integrated system of torture, repression, and systematic abuse, which has led to the deaths of more than 100 prisoners and detainees since the beginning of the war [on Gaza], 89 of whom have been identified so far”.
The charity Physicians for Human Rights Israel recently revealed that Israel was placing children in solitary confinement, raising concerns about the abuse they are subjected to.
Al-Zaghari said Israel was subjecting Palestinian prisoners to “starvation, torture, deprivation, and humiliation”, also mentioning the sexual assaults and rape they have been subjected to in Israeli detention.
He said that Israel was engaged in a campaign of “extermination” against Palestinian prisoners, saying that prisoners from Gaza has suffered “horrific levels of torture and abuses beyond description”.
Israel has classified 1,283 prisoners from Gaza as “unlawful combatants,” meaning that their detention can be renewed indefinitely.
Al-Zaghari added that families of Palestinian prisoners were being prevented by Israel from visiting them, in an attempt to cut off the prisoners from the outside world and isolate them psychologically and physically.
A number of prisoners have died inside Israeli prisons. Released prisoners have described horrific conditions inside the prisons, including deprivation of food and the spread of disease. Many prisoners have been released looking emaciated due to dangerous weight loss.
At the end of last March Israel passed a law authorizing the execution of Palestinian prisoners amid outrage from human rights groups worldwide.
Israel’s far right Public Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and other extremist members of the Knesset celebrated the passing of the law with champagne.
