United Nations Demands International Investigation into Torture and Rape Crimes Against Palestinian Prisoners

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights strongly condemned the inhumane Israeli practices committed against Palestinian prisoners in detention centers under occupation. The Commission called for independent, transparent, and impartial investigations into the circumstances of deaths, torture, and ill-treatment, emphasizing the importance of bringing those responsible for these crimes to international justice.

The spokesperson for the Commission, Thameen Al-Khaitan, explained that available data indicates that prisoners have been subjected to systematic torture and severe sexual assaults, including documented cases of rape targeting even children. Al-Khaitan pointed out that these practices occur within the context of a structurally flawed Israeli detention system, which imposes arbitrary procedures and unfair trials that disregard all international laws and conventions.

In a shocking statistic, the UN Commission confirmed that at least 90 Palestinian detainees have died in Israeli prisons since October 7, 2023. Among the victims was a boy not older than seventeen, who passed away suffering from severe starvation, reflecting the deliberate starvation policy practiced by the prison service against detainees.

These UN statements come in response to an investigative report published by The New York Times, in which journalist Nicholas Kristof revealed atrocities committed by occupation soldiers, prison guards, and settlers against prisoners. The report included live testimonies from 14 former detainees, who recounted horrific details of systematic sexual and physical assaults aimed at humiliating prisoners and breaking their human dignity.

For its part, Hebrew press reports revealed the Israeli government's intransigence and its categorical refusal to allow representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit thousands of Palestinian prisoners. This ban is a blatant violation of the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions, which Israel signed, and which guarantee the rights of prisoners to communicate with international organizations and receive necessary care.

Media sources indicated that the policies adopted by the Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, are primarily responsible for the severe deterioration in detention conditions. These retaliatory policies have transformed prisons into centers of slow death, due to the spread of diseases, the absence of medical care, and the use of starvation as a tool for collective punishment against Palestinians.

Observers described the released detainees as having turned into 'ghosts and skeletons' as a result of severe malnutrition and continuous physical torture. These field testimonies confirm the scale of the humanitarian catastrophe experienced by thousands of Palestinians inside secret and public detention centers, amidst tight Israeli secrecy to try to hide the features of the crime from the international community.

The UN Commission concluded by emphasizing the necessity of immediately ending the arbitrary Israeli detention system and demanding that Israel, as an occupying power, fulfill its obligations under international human rights law. It stressed that continued impunity encourages the commission of further violations that may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Prisoners in Israeli prisons systematically face torture and ill-treatment, including sexual violence and rape that has affected children.