Hamas condemned Thursday what it called the systematic killing and torture of Palestinian detainees in Israeli custody and urged the international community to intervene to halt the abuses.
Citing human rights data, Hamas said that 94 Palestinians were killed in Israeli prisons since the start of Tel Aviv’s genocidal war in the Gaza Strip in October 2023.
“This reflects an organized criminal approach that has turned these prisons into direct killing grounds to eliminate our people,” it added in a statement on its official Telegram channel.
Palestinian prisoners are subjected to inhumane violations, “including severe beatings, scalding with boiling water, attacks by dogs, and sexual assaults,” which are proven by firsthand testimonies and credible human rights reports, Hamas said.
It decried the Israeli practices as “full-fledged war crimes under international humanitarian law that expose the brutal nature of the (Israeli) occupation’s regime.”
Hamas called on the international community, the U.N., and human rights organizations to take immediate action to exert pressure on Israel to stop crimes against prisoners and guarantee their rights as upheld by all international covenants and norms.
According to a report submitted by Israeli human rights organizations to the U.N. Committee Against Torture, Palestinian detainees are subjected to severe torture, including rape with several objects, physical assaults by batons, scalding with boiling water, dog attacks, exposure to severe cold, sleep and food deprivation, and denial of medical care.
At least 94 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli custody since October 2023, the report said.
Israel denies the existence of systematic violations, a claim rejected by human rights groups urging urgent international intervention to halt what they describe as “systematic crimes” against detainees.
More than 10,000 Palestinians, including women and children, are currently held in Israeli prisons, according to Palestinian, Israeli and international human rights groups.
Since October 2023, abuses against Palestinian prisoners have escalated as the Israeli army has killed nearly 70,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, and injured 171,000 others in a brutal war that has left much of the enclave in ruins.
Appeal to mediators
In a separate call Wednesday, Hamas urged mediating countries to pressure Israel to allow safe passage for dozens of its members holed up in tunnels in the southern Gaza Strip.
The request came after the Israeli military said it killed over 20 Hamas members over the past week “who attempted to flee from the underground terror infrastructure in the area,” and apprehended eight more.
“We hold (Israel) fully responsible for the lives of our fighters and call upon our mediators to take immediate action to pressure (Israel) to allow our sons to return home,” Hamas said in a statement.
It was the first time the resistance group had publicly acknowledged that its members were trapped in the tunnels.
Israeli media have reported that for weeks, between 100 and 200 Hamas members have remained trapped in a network of tunnels under the city of Rafah, in an area of the Gaza Strip under Israeli military control.
Under the terms of a U.S.-brokered cease-fire that entered into force on Oct. 10, the Israeli army withdrew from coastal parts of the Palestinian territory to a so-called “yellow line” which marks the area under Israeli control.
Earlier this month, U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff alluded during a business conference in Miami to the “200 fighters who are trapped in Rafah” and said that their surrender, including turning over their weapons, could be a “test” for both parties in the cease-fire, Israel and Hamas.
However, Israel does not appear to be willing to compromise on their safe release from the tunnel.
An Israeli government spokesperson told AFP earlier this month that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “is not allowing safe passage for 200 Hamas terrorists” and that he “remains firm in his position to dismantle Hamas’ military capabilities and demilitarize the Gaza Strip.”
In its statement Wednesday, Hamas accused Israel of violating the cease-fire agreement through the “pursuit, liquidation and arrest of resistance fighters besieged in the tunnels of Rafah.”
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