By Nidal al-Mughrabi, Maytaal Angel and Ali Sawafta
CAIRO/JERUSALEM/RAMALLAH (Reuters) – Once muscular and strong Palestinian bodybuilder Moazaz Obaiyat spent nine months in Israeli custody, leaving him unable to walk unaided after his release in July. Then, in a predawn raid on his home in October, soldiers detained him again.
Before he was arrested again, the 37-year-old father of five was diagnosed with severe post-traumatic stress disorder related to his stay in the remote Israeli prison of Ktz’iot at Bethlehem Psychiatric Hospital, according to medical notes seen. by Reuters from the hospital, a public source. clinic in the occupied West Bank.
The notes said Obaiyat was subjected to “physical and psychological violence and torture” in prison and described symptoms including severe anxiety, withdrawal from his family and avoidance of discussing traumatic events and current affairs.
Alleged abuse and psychological harm to Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons and camps are back in the spotlight amid stepped-up efforts in December by international mediators to secure a ceasefire that could allow the release of thousands of inmates. detained during and before the Gaza war, in return. for Israeli hostages held by the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza.
Should detainees be released in any future deal, many “will need long-term medical care to recover from the physical and psychological abuse they have suffered,” said Qadoura Fares, head of the Palestinian Commission for Detainees and Former Detainees. Affairs, a government body in the West Bank. Fares said he was aware of Obaiyat’s case.
For this article, Reuters spoke to four Palestinian men detained by Israel since the outbreak of war following the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023. All were detained for months, accused of joining an illegal organization and released without have been formally charged or convicted. of any crime.
All described lasting psychological scars that they attributed to abuses that included beatings, sleep and food deprivation, and prolonged restraint in stressful positions during their time in prison. Reuters could not independently verify the conditions under which they were held.
Their accounts are consistent with multiple investigations by human rights groups that reported serious abuses against Palestinians detained in Israel.
An investigation published by the United Nations human rights office in August described substantiated reports of “widespread torture, sexual assault and rape, amid atrocious and inhumane conditions” in prisons since the war began. The UN office has also said that the Hamas attacks on October 7 could constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The White House has called reports of torture, rape and abuse in Israel’s prisons “deeply troubling.”
In response to questions from Reuters, the Israeli military said it was investigating several cases of alleged abuse of Gaza detainees by military personnel, but “categorically” rejected allegations of systematic abuse within its detention centers.
The military declined to comment on individual cases. The Israel Prison Service (IPS), under far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, and the country’s internal security service said they were not in a position to comment on individual cases.
“Terrorists in Israeli prisons are granted supervised living conditions and appropriate accommodation for criminals,” Ben Gvir’s office said in response to questions from Reuters, adding that the facilities operate in accordance with the law. “The ‘summer camp’ is over,” Ben Gvir’s office stated.
Tal Steiner, executive director of the Israeli human rights group Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI), said the symptoms the men recounted were common and can echo throughout victims’ lives, often tearing them apart. their families.
“Torture in Israeli prisons has skyrocketed since October 7. It will, and already has, had a devastating effect on Palestinian society,” Steiner said.
Speaking from his hospital bed in July, a severely emaciated Obaiyat called the treatment of him and his fellow prisoners “disgusting,” showing scars on his weakened legs and describing isolation, starvation, handcuffs and abuse with metal bars. without giving details.
Photos of Obaiyat taken before his imprisonment show a powerfully built man.
On December 19, Israel’s High Court ordered the state to respond to a petition filed by human rights groups regarding the lack of adequate food for Palestinian prisoners.
Israel has also reported mistreatment of some of the 251 of its citizens taken captive to Gaza after the Hamas attacks. An Israeli Health Ministry report released Saturday said the hostages were subjected to torture, including sexual and psychological abuse. Hamas has repeatedly denied abuses against the hostages.
NO CHARGE
Obaiyat is currently being held in a small detention center in Etzion, south of Bethlehem, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Club, an advocacy group.
He is being held for six months under “administrative detention,” a form of imprisonment without charge or trial, and the official reason for his arrest is unknown, the group said. Israel’s military, internal security service and prison service did not respond to questions about his specific case.
PCATI said at least 56 Palestinians had died in custody during the war, compared to just one or two annually in the years before the conflict. Israel’s military said it is launching criminal investigations into all deaths of Palestinians in its custody.
The number of Palestinian prisoners has at least doubled in Israel and the West Bank to more than 10,000 during the war, PCATI estimates, based on court documents and data obtained through freedom of information requests.
Throughout the war, around 6,000 Gazans have been imprisoned, the Israeli military said in response to a question from Reuters.
Unlike West Bank Palestinians who are held under military law, Gaza Palestinians are held in Israel under its Illegal Combatants Law.
The law has been used to hold people incommunicado, deny them their rights as prisoners of war or prisoners under military occupation, and imprison them for prolonged periods without charge or trial, according to Professor Neve Gordon, an Israeli academic specializing in human rights. and international law at Queen Mary University of London.
The Palestinian Prisoners Club compared the detentions to forced disappearances.
Israel’s prison service declined to comment on the number of prisoners and deaths.
SDE TEIMAN CAMP
Fadi Ayman Mohammad Radi, 21, a former engineering student from Khan Younis, Gaza, was one of a couple dozen Palestinians freed at the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza on August 20.
Radi described his difficulties stretching his limbs after being handcuffed and shackled for four months at Israel’s Sde Teiman military detention camp, officially a temporary prisoner classification center.
“They didn’t interrogate us, they destroyed us,” Radi said.
Located in the Negev Desert, Sde Teiman has been the scene of serious abuses, including rape, according to complaints from whistleblowers among camp guards.
Israel is currently investigating what the UN called “a particularly gruesome case” of alleged sexual abuse at Sde Teiman in which five soldiers are accused of anally penetrating a detainee with a rod that pierced his internal organs.
Radi said he was repeatedly and arbitrarily beaten, permanently restrained and blindfolded, hung in stress positions, and forced to sit on the ground almost constantly without moving.
At one point, he said he was deprived of sleep for five consecutive days in a space he said Israeli soldiers called a “disco room,” and subjected to loud music. He did not describe sexual violence.
Radi said she found it difficult to sleep and that even talking about her ordeal made her relive it.
“Every time I say the words, I visualize torture,” said Radi, who was arrested by Israeli soldiers in Gaza on March 4.
Reuters could not independently verify his story. The Israeli military said it could not comment, saying it could not find Radi’s files because Reuters could not provide his identification number.
Despite the government’s decision to phase out Sde Teiman, the camp remains operational, PCATI said.
OFFER AND KTZ’IOT
Widespread abuses have also been reported in more established facilities, such as the Ktz’iot prison, also in the Negev, and the Ofer military camp, south of Ramallah, in the West Bank.
After collecting evidence and testimonies from 55 former Palestinian prisoners, Israeli human rights group B’Tselem earlier this year published a report accusing Israel of deliberately turning the prison system into a “network of torture camps.”
Using emergency legislation introduced after the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, Ben Gvir, the hardline minister, ordered that conditions be lowered for “security prisoners,” a category that almost exclusively comprises Palestinians.
Human rights expert Gordon compared what he said was the use of torture in Israel’s prisons to terrorism.
“Terrorism is usually an act limited in the number of people directly affected, but the psychosocial effect is dramatic. The same is true of torture,” said Gordon, co-editor of a book on abuses in the Israeli prison system.