Palestinian detainees subjected to sexual abuse

RAMALLAH: Prisoners' institutions called for the urgent need to open an international investigation into the crimes committed by the Israeli occupation authorities inside prisons against Palestinian detainees who were subjected to various forms of maltreatment, including physical and psychological abuse. The Palestinian prisoner society (PPS) and detainees and ex-detainees Affairs commission said in a joint statement horrific testimonies were recounted from male and female detainees who were subjected to sexual abuse during their arrest and interrogation as well as in detention. Palestinians throughout the occupied territories today held the weekly sit-in in Al-Bireh city in solidarity with the Palestinian detainees incarcerated in Israeli jails. According to a report issued yesterday by the United Nations which clearly and explicitly indicates for the first time that female detainees were subjected to serious violations, including sexual assaults. Two female detainees from Gaza were raped, while others w ere subjected to rape threats, stripped from their clothes. Director-General of the Palestinian Prisoner's Society (PPS) Abdullah al-Zaghari said that they had also obtained testimonies and statements from male detainees during their arrest, during which they were exposed to serious sexual assaults, severe beatings, threats of rape, use of police dogs, and the use of civilians as human shields and hostages, as well as extrajudicial executions Further, female detainees were subjected to threats of rape and harassment, including verbal harassment. At least eight detainees inside the occupation prisons died as a result of torture after October 7, in addition to the crime of enforced disappearance that the Israeli occupation continues to carry out against Gaza detainees, by preventing the International Committee of the Red Cross and legal teams from visiting them and reviewing the conditions of their detention. The occupation insists on this crime, which constitutes a blatant violation of international law. A l-Zaghari affirmed the need for the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to impose legal procedures preventing collective genocide in the Gaza Strip. Source: Palestine news and Information Agency – WAFA