Shackled Gaza detainee died in Shin Bet interrogation ‘after falling from height'
The Israeli daily newspaper reported on Tuesday that the 40-year-old man died in January 2024 at a facility run by Shin Bet, Israel's notorious internal security agency.
His body was transferred from the facility without any identifying details, leaving him officially unidentified.
Shin Bet knows his identity but declined to comment.
Israeli forces have abducted thousands of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip but have not disclosed any information about their fate or whereabouts.
New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch
Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters
According to Haaretz sources, the Palestinian prisoner died while attempting to escape the facility where he was being interrogated.
The Ministry of Justice found no suspicion of criminal conduct, although the prisoner's death in custody could at least point to negligence, according to Haaretz.
Since the war on Gaza began on 7 October 2023, Israeli interrogators have used widespread torture against Palestinians, resulting in dozens of deaths.
An autopsy of his body confirmed the prisoner's wounds resulted from a fall from a significant height and found signs indicating he was shackled for an extended period.
'A death toll in the dozens points to widespread, systematic abuse of Palestinian prisoners'
- The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel
The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel told Middle East Eye it was 'deeply alarmed' by his death.
'Since 7 October [2023], torture and ill-treatment of Palestinian detainees in Israeli facilities have surged, while accountability mechanisms have all but collapsed,' the committee said.
'Numerous credible testimonies and an estimated death toll in the dozens point to widespread, systematic abuse of Palestinian prisoners.'
The NGO called on the international community to hold Israel accountable for its 'grave violations against Palestinian detainees'.
'Unprecedented' violations
According to Palestinian prisoners' monitoring groups, at least 76 Palestinians have died in Israeli custody since the war began, including several healthy men in their twenties.
Of those, at least six died while under Shin Bet interrogation.
None of these deaths has resulted in any legal proceedings or accountability.
Earlier this week, it was announced that Ahmad Saeed Tazazaa, a 20-year-old Palestinian from Jenin, died in Israeli custody.
Palestinian prisoners' rights groups in April issued a joint statement saying that Israeli violations against detainees had reached "new and unprecedented levels".
They said one of the most serious crimes is the enforced disappearance of prisoners from Gaza, with Israeli authorities refusing to disclose the fate or whereabouts of those abducted from the Strip during the ongoing war.
Israeli torture: Urinating on Palestinian prisoners, burying them alive and beating the sick Read More »
According to the organisations, around 10,000 Palestinians are currently held in Israeli jails, not including thousands of detainees from Gaza, whose numbers remain uncertain.
The high volume of detainees has compelled Israeli authorities to establish special detention camps, including the Sde Teiman facility, which the NGOs described as "a symbol of torture crimes".
The rights groups added that Israeli jailers were using all forms of torture, including starvation, medical abuse, and sexual assaults, including rape, which have been the primary causes behind the unprecedented deaths of prisoners.
Several rights groups and UN experts have documented similar Israeli violations.
Last year, Israel's leading rights group B'Tselem said that authorities were systematically abusing Palestinians in 'torture camps', subjecting them to severe violence and sexual assault.
The Israeli rights group accused the government of conducting a policy of institutionalised abuse and torture against all Palestinian detainees since 7 October.
Torture was recorded in civilian and military detention facilities across Israel, it added.
The systematic nature of the abuse across all facilities left 'no room to doubt an organised, declared policy of the Israeli prison authorities'.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Middle East Eye
3 hours ago
- Middle East Eye
US: Massachusetts city divests from companies linked to human rights violations in Israel
A city council in the state of Massachusetts on Tuesday voted to divest from entities contributing to human rights violations in Israel's war on Gaza, making it the third municipality in the US to do so. Members of the Medford City Council voted to pass legislation that would divest city funds from weapons manufacturers, private pensions, fossil fuel companies, prisons and other organisations that contribute to human rights violations. Medford City Council president Isaac Bears sponsored the investments ordinance, which overwhelmingly passed with five council members voting in support, one member opposing, and another abstaining. In the initial proposal for the resolution, it said the city of Medford would 'strive to invest its funds in ways that promote the wellbeing of our communities and our environment, favoring investment of its funds in entities that support the needs of peacetime in daily life and meet the city's goals of conducting local government in an 'accountable, transparent, innovative, stable, ethical, representative, and responsible' way'. While the ordinance did not specify companies that support what many human rights experts call a genocide in Gaza, the wording specifically outlined not investing in companies contributing to any human rights violations, including apartheid, genocide, ethnic cleansing and illegal occupation. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Bears explained in an interview that the context of the sweeping ordinance was clear. " Right now, the context is obvious. There are very clear human rights violations happening in Gaza, Ukraine, Congo, Sudan, Myanmar and other places," he told WBUR. Bears added that the ordinance would divest anywhere between $10m to 40m in funds. Media outlet Patch reported that the ongoing events in Gaza directly inspired the motion, titled the "Values-Aligned Local Investments Ordinance". Patch quoted the council vice president Kit Collins as saying, 'This policy is foundationally aligned with my Jewish faith and with the imperative to repair the world." "I feel offended and saddened to know that there are people with whom I share a Jewish identity who see me as illegitimate or claiming a Jewish identity that is not mine because I do not share their politics or ideology about Zionism and the state of Israel.' Largest sovereign wealth fund in the world to review investments in Israel Read More » Additional clauses prohibit investments in companies that obtain more than 15 percent of their revenues from the operating, maintaining, servicing, or supplying jails, prisons, or detention facilities, as well as the combustion, distribution, extraction, manufacture or sale of fossil fuels. reported that Bears said at the meeting on Tuesday: 'If we have these public funds, we are not going to invest them in this global effort that disregards and dehumanizes people in so many different ways, whether that's for political gain or for private profit - or in many cases both - in a neverending cycle of destruction and violence'. Medford is home to almost 60,000 people, and Tufts University is partially based in the city. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair) praised the decision. 'We applaud the leadership and moral courage of the Medford City Council in choosing to divest from companies profiting from crimes against humanist such as those being carried out in Israel's ongoing Gaza genocide. This ordinance reflects a growing national awareness that taxpayer dollars must not fund human rights abuses or international war crimes," a statement on Cair's website said. Precedent The vote makes Medford the third municipality in the country to choose to divest public funds from companies that invest in military weapons after Dearborn, Michigan, and Portland, Maine, did so last year. Dearborn City Council voted to divest from companies providing military equipment or weapons to Israel in October 2024. Meanwhile, the Portland City Council voted to divest from companies involved in weapons sales and other business in Israel in September 2024. The Trump administration threatened US states, cities and territories that boycott Israeli companies or those operating in Israel with not allowing them to access federal funds for natural disaster preparation last week. However, it quietly removed the relevant clause in the Federal Emergency Management Agency's guidelines on Monday after backlash. But the Department of Homeland Security said it would 'enforce all anti-discrimination laws and policies, including as it relates to the BDS movement, which is expressly grounded in antisemitism'. BDS refers to the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement that aims to make Israel comply with international law.
Middle East Eye
3 hours ago
- Middle East Eye
More US voters want aid for Gaza than weapons for Israel: Poll
A new poll by Data for Progress shows that far more people in the US want to see their government send humanitarian aid to Gaza than weapons to Israel. The survey was carried out among 1,227 likely US voters who self-identified their party affiliation. Broken down by party, a majority of Democrats want to see humanitarian aid for Gaza prioritised over arms transfers to Israel. The opposite is true for Republicans. When asked if Israel is committing human rights abuses against Palestinians, most Democrats agree, but most Republicans disagree. Independents appear to land somewhere between the two sides. When that same question was asked back in May, not as many Democrats were convinced, but August's survey shows a significant increase in Democrats who believe Israel is carrying out abuses in Gaza.
Middle East Eye
3 hours ago
- Middle East Eye
Responding to Israeli plans to occupy all of Gaza, US does not mention Palestinians
Asked for a response to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plans to militarily occupy all of Gaza, US State Department deputy spokesperson Tommy Pigott told reporters that the Trump administration has "three focuses," relating to Israel's security. They include "getting humanitarian aid into Gaza without it being looted by Hamas," ensuring "the hostages [are] released" and that "Hamas cannot continue to exist". He did not mention what would happen to Palestinians, or what US policy is toward nearly two million people in the enclave. "There could be no long term prosperity with Hamas as it as a governing force or otherwise within Gaza. So that's what our policy is. That's where our focus is... for further details on Israel's policy, I would refer you to the Government of Israel," Pigott said.
