While testimonies have been coming for several months from released detainees about the horrors of their experience, this testimony from the death cells presents facts that exposed the criminality of the IOF and the silence of the international community.
Lawyer Khaled Mahajneh was able to visit the detained journalist, Mohamed Saber Arab, 42, who was working as a correspondent for the Al-Araby channel before his arrest from Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza during the recent aggression in March.
“Where am I?”
According to a statement by the Prisoners’ Society and the Detainees’ Commission, the visit was conducted under strict restrictions and censorship by the IOF soldiers.
The first question asked by the detainee to the lawyer was “Where am I?”, as Mohamed did not know that he was being held in the Sde Teiman camp.
The lawyer Mahajneh conveyed the testimony of the journalist, which adds to the series of horrific, terrifying and shocking testimonies provided by released Gazans regarding the humiliating detention conditions, including the martyrdom of many, torture, persecution, humiliation, and rape.
“The camp administration keeps the detainees handcuffed 24 hours a day and blindfolded. For fifty days, Mohamed did not change his clothes, and just before the visit, he was only allowed to change his pants, while his jacket remained unchanged for fifty days.”
Torture leading to testimony
In his testimony, he explained, “The detainees are constantly subjected to torture, persecution, and assaults of all kinds, including sexual assaults and rapes, which have led to the martyrdom of a number of detainees.”
The beatings, persecution, humiliation, and insults never stop, according to the journalist, adding that no detainee is allowed to speak to any other detainee, and anyone who speaks is brutally beaten to the point that the detainees speak to themselves and whisper prayers, as they are forbidden from praying or practicing any religious rituals.
Regarding the detention conditions of the patients and injured among them, he said there are those who have had their limbs amputated, and bullets removed without anesthesia.
Highlights of the detention conditions
The detainee conveyed more about the prominent detention conditions they are subjected to.
He said in addition to the constant process of being shackled and blindfolded, they are always surrounded by police dogs.
Four detainees are allowed to use the bathroom for one minute, and anyone who exceeds the time is subjected to punishment. They sleep on the ground, using their shoes as pillows.
As for showering, the available time is once a week for one minute, and sleeping during the day is prohibited. He noted that after 50 days of his detention, he was allowed to shave his hair. As for the food, it is a few bites of yogurt, and a piece of cucumber or tomato, which is the meal served to them constantly.
The journalist stated that what they are subjected to is no less than the genocide the people of Gaza are facing, and called on the international community to take immediate action to rescue them from the hands of the Israeli authorities.
Reacting to the expose, the Detainees’ Commission and the Prisoners’ Society said that this visit provided new confirmation of the horrific crimes that prisoners are subjected to in Israeli prisons and camps, specifically the detention conditions that Gaza prisoners have been subjected to since the start of the extermination war.
Enforced disappearance
The IOF has imposed a policy of enforced disappearance on Gaza prisoners since the start of the extermination war, refusing to disclose their fate, numbers, and places of detention.
However, various institutions, in spite of major difficulties and challenges, have been able to trace and learn some details related to the issue of Gaza prisoners. There are still countless secret detention centres established by the IOF to detain prisoners from Gaza.
According to the the Detainees’ Commission and the Prisoners’ Society, Israel and the countries supporting it, should bear full responsibility for the unprecedented level of horrific crimes against Palestinian prisoners.
They added that “all the policies and crimes we are monitoring today are only consistent and systematic policies that the occupation has used for decades, with the only change being in their intensity.”
The organisations renewed their demand for an impartial international investigation into the serious crimes and violations against prisoners and detainees in IOF prisons and camps.
