By Nidal al-Mughrabi, Maytaal Angel and Ali Sawafta
CAIRO/JERUSALEM/RAMALLAH (Reuters) – After becoming muscular and strong, Palestinian bodybuilder Moazaz Obaiyat's nine months in Israeli custody left him unable to walk without assistance upon his release in July. Then, in October before dawn at his home, the soldiers arrested him again.
Before he was recaptured, the 37-year-old father of five was diagnosed with severe PTSD by Bethlehem Psychiatric Hospital, related to his time in Israel's remote Ktz'iot prison, according to medical records seen by Reuters at the hospital. A clinic in the West Bank.
The article states that Obaiyat was subjected to “physical and psychological violence and abuse” in prison and described symptoms including severe anxiety, withdrawal from his family and avoidance of discussing painful events and current affairs.
Allegations of abuse and psychological harm to Palestinian prisoners in prisons and camps in Israel came under renewed scrutiny amid increased efforts in December by international mediators to end the war that could see the release of thousands of prisoners held during the Gaza war and before, in return. for Israeli hostages held by the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza.
In the event of the release of the prisoners in any future deal, many “will need long-term treatment to relive the physical and psychological abuse they have endured,” said Qadoura Fares, head of the Palestinian Commission for Prisoners and Workers. Affairs, a government agency in the West Bank. Fares said he was aware of Obaiyat's case.
For this story, Reuters spoke to four Palestinian men who have been detained by Israel since the outbreak of war following the attack by Hamas on October 7, 2023. All were held for months, accused of association with an illegal organization, and released without formal charges or convictions. and any crime.
All of them describe the psychological trauma that often results from abuse that includes beatings, sleep and food deprivation and prolonged confinement in stressful situations during their time inside. Reuters could not independently verify the circumstances under which they were arrested.
Their accounts are consistent with numerous investigations by human rights groups that have reported the mistreatment of Palestinians in Israeli detention.
An investigation published by the United Nations human rights office in August described documented reports of “abuse, sexual abuse and rape, among the most appalling conditions” in prisons since the war began. The UN office also said that the Oct. 7 of Hamas could be a war crime and a crime against humanity.
The White House has called reports of torture, rape and ill-treatment in Israeli prisons “serious”.
In response to questions from Reuters, the Israeli military said it was investigating several cases of alleged abuse of Gazan prisoners by military personnel but “unequivocally” rejected allegations of systematic abuse inside the detention center.
The military declined to comment on individual cases. Israel's Prison Service (IPS), under the country's hard-line 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 provided with controlled living conditions and facilities suitable for criminals,” Ben Gvir's office said in response to questions from Reuters, adding that the facilities operate in accordance with the law. “Summer camp is over,” said Ben Gvir's office.
Tal Steiner, executive director of the Israeli rights group Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI), said the symptoms described by the men are common and can be felt in the lives of victims, often tearing their families apart.
“Torture in Israeli prisons has exploded since October 7. “It will have and has had a negative impact on the Palestinian people,” Steiner said.
Speaking at a hospital in July, a very thin Obaiyat called his and other prisoners' treatment “disgusting,” showing scars on his disfigured legs and describing isolation, hunger, handcuffs and torture with iron rods, without giving details.
Photos of Obaiyat taken before his arrest show a powerfully built man.
On 19 Dec, Israel's Supreme Court ordered the government to respond to a petition brought by rights groups regarding the lack of adequate food for Palestinian prisoners.
Israel has reported ill-treatment of another 251 people who were detained in Gaza after the Hamas attack. A report by the Israeli Ministry of Health, published on Saturday said that the arrested people were abused, including sexual and psychological abuse. Hamas has repeatedly denied abusing hostages.
WITHOUT PAYMENT
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 has been held for six months under “administrative detention”, a form of detention without charge or trial, and the official reason for his detention is unknown, the group said. The Israeli army, the internal security service and the prison service did not respond to questions about his specific case.
PCATI said at least 56 Palestinians died in detention during the war, compared to one or two a year in the years before the conflict. The Israeli army has said it is launching a criminal investigation into all deaths of Palestinians in 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.
During the war, about 6,000 Gazans were detained, the Israeli army said in response to a question from Reuters.
Unlike Palestinians from the West Bank who are held under martial law, Palestinians from Gaza are held in Israel under their illegal Law.
The law has been used to hold people incommunicado, deny them their rights as prisoners of war or as prisoners under military rule, and hold them for long periods of time without charge or trial, according to Professor Neve Gordon, an Israeli human rights scholar. and international law at Queen Mary University of London.
The Palestinian Prisoners' Association likened the detention to enforced disappearance.
Israel's prison service declined to comment on the number of prisoners and deaths.
SDE TEIMAN COMPANY
Fadi Ayman Mohammad Radi, 21 years old, a former engineering student from Khan Younis, Gaza, was one of twenty Palestinians released from the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza on August 20.
Radi described struggling to stretch his legs after being bound and gagged for four months at the Israeli military detention camp Sde Teiman, formally a temporary detention center.
“They didn't interrogate us, they destroyed us,” said Radi.
Located in the Negev desert, Sde Teiman was a site of severe abuse, including rape, according to allegations made by the media among the camp's guards.
Israel is currently investigating what the UN has called a “serious case” of alleged sexual abuse in Sde Teiman in which five soldiers are accused of entering a detention center with a stick and piercing his internal organs.
Radi said he was beaten repeatedly and without reason, permanently restrained and blindfolded, hung in pressure points and forced to sit down almost constantly without moving.
At one point, he said he was denied sleep for five consecutive days in what Israeli soldiers called a 'disco room,' with loud music. He did not mention sexual violence.
Radi says she finds it hard to sleep and talking about her pain made her remember.
“Every time I say these words, I imagine 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 obtain Radi's files because Reuters could not provide his identification number.
Despite the government's decision to evacuate Sde Teiman, the camp is still operating, PCATI said.
OPER AND KTZ'IOT
Widespread abuses were also reported in more established facilities, such as Ktz'iot prison, in the Negev, and the Ofer military camp, south of Ramallah in the West Bank.
After gathering evidence and testimony from 55 former Palestinian prisoners, the Israeli rights group B'Tselem earlier this year released a report accusing Israel of deliberately turning the prison system into a 'network of concentration camps'.
Using the emergency law introduced after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, Ben Gvir, a hardline minister, ordered that conditions be reduced for 'security prisoners', a category that almost entirely includes Palestinians.
Human rights scholar Gordon likened what he said was the use of torture in Israeli prisons to terrorism.
“Terrorism is usually an act limited to the number of people directly affected, but the psychological effect is amazing. It is similar to torture,” said Gordon, who organized a book about the abuse of the Israeli prison system.