UN Hears of Torture, Rape of Palestinian Detainees
The submission was made by the Palestinian Return Centre (PRC), a UK-based organization with special consultative status at the UN Economic and Social Council, according to The National.
The testimony draws on documentation by Khaled Mahajneh, a lawyer with the Palestinian Authority's Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, and highlights what the PRC described as a sharp escalation of systematic mistreatment.
According to the PRC, detainees reported severe physical beatings, deliberate starvation, prolonged suspension in painful positions, medical neglect leading to deaths, dog attacks, and amputations conducted without anesthesia.
One documented case included the rape of a Palestinian detainee by an Israeli prison guard. The organization said the accounts were corroborated by internationally recognized human rights groups, including Physicians for Human Rights–Israel and B'Tselem.
Most Gaza detainees are allegedly held in undisclosed military facilities, including Anatot and Sde Teiman camps. The PRC reported that these sites operate with no legal oversight, while detainees are denied access to lawyers and barred from International Committee of the Red Cross visits.
Israeli occupation authorities have labeled many detainees as 'unlawful combatants' or 'terrorists,' a designation the PRC said is used to sidestep international humanitarian protections.
The group called for the immediate formation of an independent international inquiry into torture and sexual violence and urged that these cases be included in ongoing International Criminal Court investigations.
The PRC warned that continued international silence or symbolic condemnation 'amounts to political complicity' in what it describes as ongoing violations of Palestinian detainees' basic human rights.
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