Palestine Center for Prisoner Studies confirms enemy continues to kill prisoners in its prisons with impunity

The Palestine Center for Prisoner Studies affirmed on Monday that the Israeli enemy continues to kill unarmed Palestinian prisoners in its prisons under the watchful eye of the “unjust” international community and its human rights and humanitarian institutions, without any deterrent to curb the ongoing extrajudicial killings.

The center stated in a press release that the Israeli enemy has killed 81 unarmed prisoners whose identities are known since the start of the war of extermination on the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, using various methods, most notably torture and deliberate medical neglect. The latest victim was the elderly prisoner Muhammad Hussein Ghawadreh (63 years old) from the city of Jenin.

The center warned against the continuation of the killing of prisoners and that the number would not stop at this figure, given the continuation of the enemy’s repressive and aggressive policies against prisoners, and the insistence of the extremist Israeli government on continuing its crimes against them, providing protection to the perpetrators of these crimes, and the unlimited support provided by the extremist criminal Ben Gvir to those responsible for the prisons, which is exemplified by his continuous visits to prisons, threatening prisoners, and inciting prison administrations to tighten detention conditions.

The Palestine Center clarified that the number of martyrs of the prisoner movement since 1967 has risen to 318 martyrs to date, including 81 martyrs whose identities are known since the start of the war of extermination on the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023. The center noted that the Israeli enemy is still holding the bodies of 78 prisoners and refuses to hand them over to their families.

The center affirmed that the enemy’s persistence in killing Palestinian prisoners inside its prisons constitutes a clear war crime that necessitates accountability. The trial of its leaders who gave the green light to carry out these crimes that lead to the killing of unarmed prisoners.

It added that Israeli enemy investigators are using deadly torture methods against prisoners in the Sde Teiman, Ofer, and Negev detention centers, including electric shocks, severe beatings all over the body, especially the upper areas, forcing them to strip naked in the cold for long periods, and unleashing vicious police dogs to maul their weak bodies, in addition to the medical crimes committed against the sick.

The Center pointed out that this has led to the death of a number of prisoners due to the lack of adequate treatment and care, considering the enemy’s prisons a fertile ground for killing prisoners, where the most basic necessities of life are unavailable, and they are deprived of all their fundamental rights. The prisons are overcrowded with more than 9,500 prisoners.

It stated that the Israeli enemy is directly practicing a policy of starvation, with prisoners describing what is happening to them as “famine,” as only a small amount of food is provided, not even enough for one prisoner in a room containing 12 prisoners. This has led to all of them suffering from emaciation, weight loss, and weakened immunity, and diseases have begun to afflict their weak bodies.

The Palestine Center revealed that more than 20% of the prisoners suffer from various illnesses, and hundreds of them suffer from serious diseases that could lead to death at any moment without proper treatment, which portends the martyrdom of new prisoners in the near future.

The Center called on the international community and human rights organizations to assume their responsibilities and intervene immediately to form investigative committees to document the crimes of killing and torture against prisoners, and to exert pressure… The Zionist entity must stop these crimes, and the International Criminal Court must bring the entity’s leaders to trial as war criminals for their responsibility for the war crimes taking place inside the prisons.