320 Palestinian detainees in Gilboa living in a ‘deadly hell’, says Prisoners Authority

RAMALLAH: The Palestinian Prisoners’ Affairs Authority stated today that 320 Palestinian detainees in the Israeli prison of Gilboa are currently ‘living in a deadly hell.’

The authority explained in a statement that the detainees are enduring a ‘deadly hell’ due to the racist Israeli policies and major changes that occurred after October 7th, which “turned Israeli prisons into real slaughterhouses, where torture and beatings in their worst forms are practiced.”

“This has resulted in dozens of executions among detainees from Gaza, the West Bank, and the 1948-occupied territories,” the authority said in a press statement.

The legal unit of the authority, which managed to visit detainee identified by his initials R.Y., a Palestinian from Tulkarm governorate who is sentenced to life imprisonment, conveyed horrific details of what he endured in the prison over the last few months.

He stated, “On October 8th, the prison was stormed in a provocative manner, we were tied up and all subjected to brutal beatings wi
th batons, helmets, and legs all over the body. They seized all our personal and public belongings, disregarded the health condition of sick detainees and the elderly. They have turned the prison rooms into cells, prevented us from going to the prison yard and smoking, and isolated us from the outside world.”

The detainee added in his testimony, “We have no clothes or blankets, and we are deprived of shaving machines, nail clippers, and cleaning materials. Sanctions and fines are imposed on us, organizational representation has been canceled, and we are rarely allowed to go to the prison clinic to get medication. The reality is harsher than anything we have experienced before.”

The authority warned of Israel’s continued punitive practices against Palestinian detainees, calling for breaking the silence in the face of organized crimes that reveal the true face of the Israeli occupation.

It emphasized that the international institutional absence in protecting Palestinian detainees is evidence of the subordina
tion that the international system has reached in the face of these human rights abuses by the Israeli occupation.

Source: Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA