The Palestinian Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs Commission and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society released a series of harrowing testimonies from Gaza detainees held in Israel’s Naqab and Nafha prisons.
The accounts, gathered over two days, reveal widespread abuse, including torture, medical neglect, starvation and severe trauma at the hands of Israeli occupation forces.
The testimonies, shared by 23 detainees, describe a pattern of mistreatment that began immediately after arrest and worsened during interrogations. Many detainees reported long-lasting physical and psychological trauma, worsened by harsh prison conditions such as overcrowding, inadequate medical care and the spread of diseases like scabies.
Gaza detainees described brutal treatment across various facilities. K.N, a 45-year-old detainee, recounted: “I was severely beaten to extract confessions, leaving me with fractures. After 58 days in a camp near Gaza,
I was transferred to Naqab Prison, where they burned me with hot water. The burn marks remain on my body.
“We live in torn tents, suffering from extreme cold and hunger.”
Similarly, A.H, 21, shared: “I’ve developed boils, sores and holes across my body due to scabies. I go to bed hungry and wake up hungry. I also have high eye pressure, and my left eye is in serious danger.”
M.H, another detainee, detailed his horrifying first days, “I was subjected to brutal torture, including a full day of beating, followed by being doused with sewage and urinated on by the soldiers. Then we were transferred to another camp for 27 days, where we were kept kneeling, blindfolded, with hands and feet shackled. We live in constant suffering and torment.”
M.D said: “The severe beating caused me to lose my artificial eye, and I now have a hollow socket. The soldiers also confiscated my glasses.”
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The report also highlighted detainees struggling with personal loss. One Gaza prisoner mourned the deaths of his wife, several relatives, and later his father – all killed during the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza.
These revelations add to mounting evidence of systemic violations against Palestinian detainees. While the Sde Teiman military camp has long been identified as a site of abuse, detainees report similar practices in other facilities, including Naqab and Ofer prisons.
The Israeli occupation army has continued a genocidal war on Gaza that has killed over 46,000 people, mostly women and children, since 7 October, 2023, despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire.
Thousands of Palestinians are believed to have been detained by the Israeli army during the course of the Gaza war.
In November 2024, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his former Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
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