DaysofPal- A Palestinian human rights group stated that the Israeli occupation is reviving some of the harshest and most inhumane historical models of repression in its treatment of Palestinian detainees, warning that abuses inside Israeli prisons are an extension of the ongoing assault on Gaza.
Alaa Skafi, director of the Al-Dameer Human Rights Foundation, said the recent escalation targeting Palestinian prisoners under the Israeli far-right Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, must be understood within what he described as a broader campaign of genocide against the Palestinian people that has persisted for more than two years.
In remarks to Palestine Online, Skafi said prison conditions have sharply deteriorated, driven by severe detention policies and deliberate, personally motivated punitive measures enforced by Ben-Gvir.
He emphasized that the violations are no longer limited to unverified claims, pointing to documented testimonies gathered by Al-Dameer and leaked video recordings showing repeated assaults and abuse of detainees inside Israeli prisons.
His statements followed media reports that Ben-Gvir had proposed building a new detention facility for Palestinian prisoners surrounded by crocodiles.
According to the Israeli Channel 13, the prison would be located in the Hamat Gader area of the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, with crocodiles placed inside a secured perimeter to prevent escape.
Skafi said the proposal reflects a “criminal mindset” drawn from the most extreme and violent experiments in history, including Nazi and fascist practices, and represents a severe moral and political collapse in the Israeli approach to Palestinian prisoners.
Legally, Skafi argued that the Israeli occupation has violated nearly every provision of international humanitarian and human rights law governing the treatment of detainees.
He cited killings and extrajudicial executions, brutal beatings, systematic torture, starvation, sexual abuse, electric shocks, prolonged interrogations, enforced disappearances, denial of legal access, and the absence of fair trials.
He also accused the Israeli occupation of intentionally spreading disease within prisons and weaponizing illness as a form of punishment, alongside systematic medical neglect and chronic food deprivation, as part of a policy designed to destroy prisoners both physically and psychologically.
On the political level, Skafi said the rising number of deaths in custody since Ben-Gvir took office, combined with public calls for executions or prisons designed around death, demonstrates the Israeli sense of complete impunity.
He said this sends a message to the international community that there are no consequences, while simultaneously signaling to Palestinians that killing and liquidation policies will continue unchecked.
According to Skafi, prison conditions since October 7, 2023, have reached an unprecedented level of severity, marked by relentless violations that directly threaten detainees’ lives and basic rights.
He described this period as a dangerous shift in Israeli policy, characterized by the normalization of physical elimination inside detention centers.
He pointed to leaked images showing mass humiliation of detainees and assaults on female prisoners as further evidence of systematic and extreme violence.
Skafi warned that, in the absence of international accountability, the Israeli occupation continues to commit acts amounting to crimes against humanity against Palestinian prisoners, despite their protections under the Fourth Geneva Convention, which requires occupying powers to uphold detainees’ dignity, prohibit torture, and ensure adequate food and medical care.
Instead, he said, Israeli practices reflect an official policy reinforced by legislation and judicial rulings that allow or even mandate the denial of food to prisoners, with full government and court support, as part of a deliberate strategy of physical elimination.
He added that renewed attempts to pass legislation known as the execution of prisoners law fit squarely within this pattern, noting that the Israeli occupation has already carried out de facto executions and extrajudicial killings of numerous detainees over the past two years.
According to Al-Dameer, more than 90 Palestinian prisoners have died in Israeli custody over the past two years due to torture, direct execution, and medical neglect.
Skafi said the number reflects the scale of the crisis inside Israeli prisons, adding that proposed execution laws appear aimed at retroactively legitimizing killings already carried out during the ongoing Israeli genocidal war.
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