Hamas condemns ‘systematic abuse’ of Palestine prisoners by Israel

Hamas has condemned the “systematic abuse” suffered by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli detention, which has led to the death of a number of detainees.

In a statement issued today, the movement said the escalation in the Israeli prison services’ aggressive and criminal policies against Palestinian prisoners will not weaken detainees’ resolve, adding that the Palestinian people “will not let their prisoners fall victim to the barbarism of the [Israeli] occupation”.

Hamas pledged to liberate the prisoners and break their chains “soon”.

The statement referred to “testimonies” of freed prisoners who documented the abuse and torture suffered by Palestinian prisoner, Ibrahim Hamed, and others, in addition to the isolation and oppression practiced against leaders of the prisoner movement, “which led to the martyrdom of a number of prisoners”.

Hamas stressed that the Israeli actions “demonstrate the policy of systematic abuse” practised against Palestinian prisoners.

In a joint statement yesterday, the Commission for Prisoners’ and Ex-Prisoners’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club highlighted the testimony of an ex- prisoner who had been released from Gilboa Prison who said Hamed had been subjected to “horrific torture and abuse”.

Hamed, he explained, “has no place on his body that does not have bruises, scratches, or wounds, and a large amount of blood has bled from his head after he was assaulted, and his health condition is very serious.”

The joint statement explained that “the horrific abuse practised against prisoner Hamed reflects an unprecedented level of brutality, which led to the martyrdom of at least 18 prisoners in the occupation’s prisons and detention camps, in addition to detainees from Gaza who were martyred inside detention camps and the Israeli occupation continues to refuse to disclose their identities.”

In its statement, Hamas called on the international community and human rights organisations to “shoulder their responsibilities” and stop “the slow death that prisoners are subjected to inside the Israeli occupation’s prisons, and violations of all international conventions and norms, especially those stipulated in the Geneva Convention regarding prisoners of war.”

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