Occupied East Jerusalem – In early November, the Israeli authorities summoned Hashim Matar* to the police station in occupied East Jerusalem.
For 10 days, he was interrogated about whether or not he supported Hamas and was a member of the Palestinian group. Between questioning, Matar was locked in a small room with different detainees, the place they have been punched, kicked and crushed with batons.
“Plenty of folks had their [sternum] or heads damaged, usually gushing with blood,” Matar, a 54-year-old man with a brief gray beard and chuckle traces round his eyes, instructed Al Jazeera three months after he was launched from detention.
“We weren’t even handled like animals. At the very least animals are handled with some kind of dignity.”
Israel has taken thousands of Palestinians captive since Hamas’s assault on Israel on October 7, by which 1,139 folks have been killed and about 250 kidnapped.
Since then, the variety of Palestinians arrested within the occupied West Financial institution exceeds 7,350 folks, in accordance with the Addameer monitor in Ramallah.
Whereas some Palestinians have been launched, 9,100 stay captive. That’s a pointy uptick from the 5,200 that have been in Israeli prisons earlier than October 7.
These figures don’t embody the hundreds of adults and kids the Israeli military has reportedly detained, tortured and interrogated in makeshift prisons throughout Gaza, exterior any authorized or civilian oversight.
Violence and neglect
Since October 7, Israeli authorities have turn into extra violent throughout arrests, in accordance with a employees member of Addameer who spoke on situation of anonymity.
The person instructed Al Jazeera that Israeli authorities usually storm houses within the West Financial institution and start to kick, punch and beat everybody inside. In some circumstances, Israeli troopers take members of the family “hostage” by threatening to whisk them away, until the needed individual comes ahead.
As soon as in custody, Palestinians are shoved into automobiles and crushed till they arrive on the detention facility. That’s the place they’re instructed to strip, dress and to strip once more – a cycle that happens a number of instances whereas they’re crushed, generally on their genitalia.
Captives are subjected to even worse remedy behind bars. Addameer stated water or electrical energy is reduce off and captives are denied visits from their kinfolk or the Pink Cross. The rights group added that the majority victims are denied healthcare, even for accidents sustained throughout their arrest. Because of this, prisoners have died resulting from well being neglect.
“To this point, 10 prisoners from the West Financial institution [have died]. That is the very best determine ever in such a brief interval,” the Addameer employees member instructed Al Jazeera.
Matar was afraid he may fall unwell throughout his time in jail. He described how Israeli guards would flip the lights off in the course of the day so captives languished in the dead of night and flood the cells with gentle at night time to maintain prisoners awake as they lay on the chilly flooring.
Nevertheless, being crushed was the worst a part of detention, Matar stated.
“I might ask them: ‘Why are you beating us? What did we do to you so that you can beat us?’”
Administrative detention
Israel has additionally weaponised quasi-judicial measures to arrest hundreds of Palestinians with out cost. Of all Palestinians detained since October 7, about 3,050 are held in “administrative detention”, an emergency measure that Israel inherited from the colonial British Mandate for Palestine.
Below administrative detention, prisoners are held indefinitely and given no details about the fees in opposition to them or the ostensible proof incriminating them.
In lots of circumstances, Israeli authorities don’t inform Palestinian households of the whereabouts of their detained family members – which quantities to an enforced disappearance, a violation of worldwide regulation.
“Israel’s sweeping use of administrative detention shouldn’t be lawful,” stated Omar Shakir, the Israel-Palestine director at Human Rights Watch.
“However these practices don’t simply date again years, however many years they usually have solely escalated since October 7.”
The Addameer employees member added that amongst 200 Palestinian youngsters languishing in Israeli prisons, 40 are held below administrative detention, and captives affected by extreme or terminal diseases are denied seeing household and have little hope of being launched.
On the finish of February, the Addameer staffer stated, one most cancers affected person died in an Israeli jail on the age of 23.
“He simply collapsed. He died after 5 months of not having the ability to see his household,” they instructed Al Jazeera.
“That is merciless collective punishment. Simply think about [this person’s family] who misplaced their beloved. They weren’t even capable of be with him in his final moments.”
Makeshift prisons
Along with the sweeping arrests within the West Financial institution, the Israeli military has arrested hundreds of Palestinians from Gaza since launching its devastating battle on the enclave.
Over the past 5 months, Israel has killed greater than 31,000 Palestinians and displaced practically the whole inhabitants of two.3 million folks in Gaza. Many have additionally gone lacking, elevating fears that they’re both buried below the rubble or languishing within the labyrinth of makeshift Israeli prisons in Gaza.
Ibrahim Yacoub*, 29, was arrested by Israeli troopers in northern Gaza on November 21. He stated his arms have been tied behind his again and he was compelled to stroll to an Israeli detention spot in a bunch of 80 captives.
“Any time considered one of us stumbled, a soldier would hit us on high of the top,” he instructed Al Jazeera. “I stored dreading once they have been going to hit me subsequent.”
Yacoub was ultimately taken to what seemed to be an empty warehouse, the place Israeli troopers interrogated him, repeatedly asking about Hamas’s operations and his position within the group.
“I stored telling them that I’m not a fighter. I’m a civilian,” Yacoub stated over the cellphone, weeks after his launch.
Throughout his 53 days in captivity, Yacoub was moved to 2 different places, the place he was mistreated, bitten by assault canine and virtually starved. Nevertheless, he was not among the many 1,073 Palestinians transferred to Israel from Gaza, as documented by Addameer.
Regardless of being launched, Yacoub shouldn’t be free.
He’s now in Rafah, a small city by the Egyptian border that’s harbouring greater than 1,000,000 Palestinians displaced inside Gaza. For weeks, Israel has threatened to launch a full-scale offensive in town, a transfer that may compound Gaza’s devastating humanitarian disaster.
Like so many Palestinians, Yacoub doesn’t have the means or freedom to flee. However neither can he think about constructing a brand new life in Gaza from scratch.
“Every part I knew is gone … my condo and my workplace,” he instructed Al Jazeera. “My complete life and future is up in flames.”
* Names have been modified or withheld to guard sources from reprisal.
