The Prisoners Club said that the attempts of the Israeli occupation system, aimed at breaking the will of the Palestinian prisoner, spreading terror among their families, intimidating the Palestinian and our people, and harming the collective awareness of the image of the Palestinian prisoner, through the pictures and video clips it broadcasts of humiliation and torture, under the title that they are (leaked), will fail, and we must be careful about the way these pictures and clips are published, and contribute to achieving its goals.

The Prisoners Club added in a statement today, Saturday, in response to a video clip from one of the sections in Megiddo Prison, which included images of humiliation and torture of prisoners, by police dogs, with their hands tied behind their backs while they were lying on their stomachs and their faces on the ground, in a scene that is no longer surprising, in light of the horrific crimes and torture crimes carried out by the occupation system, which constituted the title of the stage in its prisons. The Israeli occupation authorities have deliberately, since the beginning of the war of extermination, and the escalation of systematic arrest campaigns - unprecedented in their level - to publish images of video clips of torture, humiliation and rape to which prisoners and detainees are subjected in its prisons, under the pretext that they are (leaked) clips and images in most cases.

The Prisoners Club explained that the occupation army and the Israeli media had previously published clips of torture of naked Palestinian detainees, followed by many pictures published by the occupation army of detainees bound and blindfolded with the Israeli flag behind them, and many pictures of Gaza detainees naked and crammed in the streets and in troop carriers, in addition to the most prominent video which included occupation soldiers raping a Gaza detainee in the (Sde Teiman) camp.

The Prisoners Club continued: “The leaking of these photos and videos is a deliberate act by the current settler government, headed by the fascist Minister (Ben Gvir), with the aim of bragging about torturing prisoners, as part of the competition between the ministers of the current government over who tortures and kills Palestinians more. Before and after the war, (Ben Gvir) deliberately used the issue of prisoners and incitement against them as a tool to gain more support within Israeli society and satisfy his great desire for revenge after the war, without the slightest consideration for what these photos and videos contain, of a serious violation of human laws and norms, and a violation of human dignity, as a message to the world that his system is above the laws, and that it is exempt from punishment.”

The Prisoners Club added that the other goal of publishing these clips and photos is to influence the image of the Palestinian prisoner in the collective consciousness due to his special status in the context of the Palestinian struggle, in addition to using it as an additional tool for intimidation operations and spreading terror among Palestinian citizens, and establishing certain images of the (prison) scene.

The Prisoners Club confirmed that these photos and clips constitute a small part of the systematic torture operations against prisoners and detainees carried out by the occupation system in various prisons and camps. This was reflected in dozens of testimonies documented by specialized institutions over the past period, whether through legal teams that visit prisoners and detainees, or through testimonies obtained from released prisoners. Among those testimonies were statements from several prisoners about the extremist minister (Ben Gvir) stepping on the heads of prisoners during his visit to the prisons, and filming the operations of humiliating, torturing and abusing them. The prisoners also confirmed that the repression forces force the prisoners to have their heads and faces touching the ground during the repression operations with the aim of humiliating them and degrading their dignity, and the physical torment and pain that accompanies that as well.

The Prisoners Club also confirms that everything the occupation is doing to prisoners and detainees today in its prisons constitutes fixed and systematic policies that it has used since its occupation of Palestine. However, at each stage it has used them at different and specific levels. What has changed after October 7 is that these crimes and policies have reached their peak, in addition to its institutionalization and creation of new tools to consolidate these crimes.

The Prisoners Club pointed out that after each video, the occupation begins talking about its intention to open an investigation into the matter, which is part of the farcical plays that the occupation presents in order to exempt itself from any international accountability, indicating that these scenes will not stop as long as the state of international collusion continues in supporting the war of extermination, and keeping the occupation in a state of exception.

In this context, the Palestinian Prisoners Club renewed its demand for the United Nations to open an impartial international investigation into the crimes of torture and murder committed by the occupation against prisoners and detainees in its prisons. It stressed the need to demand that the occupation provide recordings from cameras spread throughout various prisons and camps, which today constitute part of the structure of Israeli prisons and one of the most prominent tools of control and oversight in the prison structure. It also called on the international human rights system to restore its real and necessary role and protect its existence as a system, in the face of the systematic crimes committed by the Israeli occupation within the framework of the war of extermination and the operations of erasure.

It is noteworthy that Megiddo Prison is one of the most prominent central prisons in which Palestinian prisoners and detainees are held, and it has a special section for child prisoners. It was one of the most prominent prisons that witnessed horrific torture operations against prisoners after October 7, which included the deaths of a number of martyrs.

The number of prisoners in the occupation prisons until the beginning of September 2024 is more than 9,900, and this data does not include all the detainees from Gaza who are in the camps affiliated with the Israeli occupation army.