RAMALLAH, Friday, June 7, 2024 (WAFA) - The families of Palestinian detainees in Israeli occupation prisons appealed to the international community, including all human rights and humanitarian bodies, to promptly intervene to save the lives of detainees from the foreseeable risk of death threatening them as a result of the occupation’s mistreatment.
The families, in an appeal distributed by the Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Commission, called for the immediate formation of an international human rights committee to visit Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails, particularly those who have been imprisoned for more than 35 years, to examine their living conditions.
The families called on the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to uphold its legal and humanitarian obligations in the face of the crimes and violations committed against the rights of Palestinian detainees, including their visitation rights which they have been deprived of ever since the Israeli aggression began in October of last year.
The appeal also called on international bodies to take urgent action to pressure the occupation authorities to stop the policy of deliberate starvation aimed at killing Palestinian detainees and to condemn the practices of the occupation prison administration against them as war crimes.
The families of detainees called for the formation of an international pressure lobby to monitor the conditions of detainees, urging for political steps to be taken by the international community through its embassies in Israel to follow up on the issue of Palestinian detainees, including working on improving their living conditions and ensuring that minimum standards of treatment are secured in accordance with international law.
The appeal demanded the international community’s response to their fair and humanitarian demands, stating: “We demand the protection of our children’s rights until they gain freedom.”
The families called on the international community to safeguard detainees from the heinous crimes that are being committed against them by the Israeli occupation, including the systematic physical and psychological torture policy, deprivation of basic needs of human life and minimum levels of treatment, prison overcrowding, and the policy of deliberate starvation, among others.
Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails are facing unprecedented crimes carried out by the occupation prison administration against them through the adoption of a series of dangerous systematic policies.
The appeal stressed that despite the decades-long issue of Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails, the world insists on ignoring the injustices and systematic abuses inflicted upon them through different methods and means.
Since the beginning of the Israeli aggression in October 2023, the occupation forces detained over 9,300 Palestinians, including 635 minors, from the West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem. More than 3400 Palestinian detainees, including women and children, have also been placed in administrative detention under the pretext of secret evidence.
Moreover, thousands of Palestinians who were detained by the Israeli occupation in Gaza are subjected to the crime of forced disappearance, according to the Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Commission.
Ever Since the aggression began, 18 Palestinian detainees have died in the occupation's prisons and detention camps, in addition to dozens of detainees from the Gaza Strip who have died in mysterious conditions while in Israeli custody. Until now, the occupation refuses to reveal their identities and the circumstances behind their deaths.
T.R.
