HOSTAGE TAKING ENMASS

Israel's 'retaliatory' Palestinian captive-taking has led to overcrowding in prisons


Palestinians search for victims following an Israeli strike that killed more than 100 people in a school sheltering displaced Palestinians. a medical source said, in Gaza City, on Saturday on August 10, 2024. Photo by Mahmoud Zaki/UPI | License Photo


Aug. 11 (UPI) -- Israel's high rate of arrest of Palestinians in recent months has led to overcrowding in the prisons where the captives are held.

The Palestinian Commission of Detainees' Affairs, a governmental body of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, said in a statement Saturday that a third of the 500 captives in the Gilboa Prison are forced to sleep on the floor in crowded cells.

"This overcrowding constitutes a clear violation and transgression of prisoners' rights, according to international laws and agreements," the commission said, noting that the overcrowding also violates Israeli law.

Some cells, that are only meant to hold five prisoners, are holding captive as many as 15 people, according to the commission.

A lawyer for the commission visited the prison and met with two captives who described daily beatings and abuse by prison guards, including being sprayed with gas, from inside the prison.

The captives are 25-year-old captive Awad Mar'I, who was arrested in May 2022 and is serving a three-year sentence, and 38-year-old Islam Badr -- who has been detained since October and is being transferred to administrative detention upon recommendation from Israel's Shin Bet intelligence agency.

Last week, the commission interviewed three Palestinians held captive at the Ofer Prison where they have endured "overwhelming pain" and "inhumane treatment" at the hands of their Israeli jailers.

"They used dogs to terrify and attack us, and sprayed pepper spray and tear gas in our cells without any reason," the captives said in a joint statement, adding that their Israeli jailers "broke our bones and left us bleeding from the heads and all body parts."

About 10,000 Palestinians are currently held captive in Israeli prisons, excluding many from Gaza. About 3,432 of them are under administrative detention, which allows Israel to indefinitely keep them captive without trial.

The human rights group Amnesty International has said the practice has "dramatically increased" since the war. Palestinians and their supporters often equate this practice to kidnapping.

Amnesty International has documented cases of Israeli soldiers torturing Palestinian detainees, including "severe beatings" and "humiliation." The human rights group said that such torture had been occurring "for decades" before Hamas' attack Oct. 7.

And, Israeli forces have continued to detain dozens of journalists and healthcare workers in Gaza.