RAMALLAH, Thursday, August 01, 2024 (WAFA) – A Palestinian who was detained from Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital during an Israeli military raid has died in a notorious Israeli detention facility, the Commission of the Detainees and Ex-Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestine Prisoner’s Society announced on Thursday evening.
The Commission and the Society said in a press release that 42-year-old Islam as-Sirsawi, a resident of the Gaza city neighborhood of Shuja'iyya, who was detained during the last Israeli raid into al-Shifa Hospital, died in the notorious Sde Teiman detention centre as a result of torture.
They revealed that based on verified and corroborated facts, as-Sirsawi, one among dozens of detainees who died in Israeli prisons and detentions centers and whose identities are still concealed by the occupation authorities, had died in the detention facility four months ago, and they had not received any credible information about his fate before today.
As-Sirsawi was forced out and detained along with dozens of Palestinians from al-Shifa Hospital and their whereabouts or places of detention were not revealed at the time due to enforced disappearance.
As-Sirsawi’s death brings the total number of Palestinian prisoners who have died in Israeli imprisonment since 1967 to 257, including 20 prisoners who have died in custody since the onset of the ongoing Israeli genocidal aggression on Gaza, not to mention dozens others whose identities are still concealed by the occupation authorities.
The Commission and the Society called on international institutions to take immediate action to halt the crime of enforced disappearance and intensified crime of torture against prisoners, and called for the expediting the formation of a United Nations special committee with full mandate to investigate all crimes committed by the occupation against Palestinian prisoners.
They said that there are currently over 9,900 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli prisons and detention centers, noting that this number is exclusive of the Palestinians detained from the Gaza Strip.
About 4,000 Palestinians have been detained from Gaza in Israel since October 2023. Most are detained and interrogated in the enclave but many are brought to Sde Teiman, even if they are a non-combatant.
Torture, rape and murder have all been reported as rife at the facility, one of several facilities where Palestinians have been mistreated for decades.
On 15 July, Israel's High Court issued a conditional order seeking to close Sde Teiman in response to the reports of abuse there.
K.F.
