News / Palestine

'Beaten day and night': Gazans released from Israeli jails recount torture in custody

Friday, 05 July 2024 11:12 AM [ Last Update: Friday, 05 July 2024 11:12 AM ]

Palestinians abducted by Israel from the Gaza Strip are seen at a courtyard in a prison south of the occupied territories, on February 14, 2024. (Photo by Flash90)

Recently released Palestinians from the Gaza Strip report experiencing torture while detained by Israeli force.

Some of the former Gaza abductees told AFP that they were blindfolded, beaten and bitten by dogs during detention.

They were interviewed at Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital following their release from the occupation’s jails on June 11.

"I was beaten day and night. Our eyes were blindfolded, our hands and feet shackled and they set dogs on us," Mahmud al-Zaanin, 37, recounted from his hospital bed.

"They asked me where (the leader of the Palestinian Hamas resistance group in Gaza) Yahya Sinwar was, where Hamas was, where our prisoners were, and why I participated on October 7” Operation Al-Aqsa Storm.

Zaanin, however, said he did not take part in the Hamas operation that was carried out in retaliation for the usurping regime’s intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

Israel unleashed a genocidal war on the besieged Gaza after the historic Hamas operation. So far, the Tel Aviv regime has killed at least 38,011 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 87,445 others.

Zaanin said he was deprived of sleep and bathroom access and denied medical treatment, adding, "We urinated in our clothes."

Rami Abu Mustafa, a recently released Palestinian ex-prisoner from Gaza, has died in the hospital following his release from the Israeli prison.#GazaGenocide pic.twitter.com/vCLonMkNSr
— Palestine Highlights (@PalHighlight) July 4, 2024

Another former abductee Othman al-Kafarneh said that his "hands were injured from electric torture”.

He further recounted that he saw "more than 30 prisoners with amputated legs, some with both legs missing, and some with both eyes missing."

Earlier this week, Mohammed Abu Salmiya, the director of Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, said Israel had tortured him and other detainees, following his release after seven months in the regime’s detention facilities.

Gaza hospital chief says he was severely tortured in Israeli prisons

Mohammed Abu Salmiya was among more than 50 Palestinians released and returned to Gaza on Monday.

The United Nations has censured "unacceptable" abuse and torture of Palestinian detainees by the Israeli forces amid the Gaza onslaught.

"We have received reports of torture, mistreatment, handcuffing, deprivation of food, of water of medication, and these are very worrying reports,” said Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the UN human rights commissioner.

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