The Palestinian Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs Authority revealed on Sunday that Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons were subjected to "widespread repression" on October 7. This came according to a statement by the authority affiliated with the Palestine Liberation Organization, in which it presented testimonies of detainees in Israeli prisons after a number of its lawyers were able to visit them recently.
Since the beginning of the genocide committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, Israeli, Palestinian and international human rights organizations have spoken about the deterioration of conditions in Israeli prisons, especially in the notorious Sde Teiman.
The authority said that "the (Israeli) occupation prison administration carried out wide-scale raids in several prisons on October 7 (current), as part of the policy of collective revenge, which constitutes the most prominent systematic policy followed by the occupation prison system against prisoners and detainees." The Authority quoted a detainee, who only gave his first name (L.T.), in Ofer Prison, west of Ramallah in the central occupied West Bank, as saying that “the repressive forces stormed all sections, sprayed tear gas, and assaulted most of the detainees.” Another detainee in the same prison added that “the repressive forces assaulted the detainees in the section where he was being held, resulting in minor injuries,” according to the statement. A third detainee reported that “a number of detainees, as a result of the repression, are still suffering from the effects of the beatings, and the repression, searches, and humiliation operations have recently been escalating, although they have not actually stopped since the beginning of the war until today.” In Ramon Prison in southern Israel, a group of detainees reported to the Authority’s lawyer that “the repressive forces stormed their sections, tied them all up, and transferred them to the prison yard, in humiliating and degrading conditions, and assaulted them.” The statement of the Authority indicated that "the Israeli prison administration deliberately filmed the suppression operation, and the majority of the detainees suffered bruises in the chest and back."
The number of Palestinian detainees since that date has exceeded 11,300 Palestinians from the West Bank, including Jerusalem, according to the prisoners' institutions, while accurate numbers are missing on the detainees of the Gaza Strip due to the Israeli blackout.
Weekly Kashf Al-Haqaiq Magazine Editor-in-Chief Jaafar Al-Khabouri
