Amid pressure for ceasefire, Palestinians released from Israeli prisons bear psychological and physical scars Reuters

Nidal al-Mughrabi, Maytaal Angel and Ali Sawafta

CAIRO/JERUSALEM/RAMALLAH (Reuters) – Once muscular and strong, Palestinian bodybuilder Moazaz Obaiyat’s nine-month stint in Israeli custody left him unable to walk unaided after his release in July. He was then re-arrested by soldiers in a pre-dawn raid on his home in October.

Before he was rearrested, the 37-year-old father of five was diagnosed with severe PTSD by Bethlehem Psychiatric Hospital, linked to his time spent in Israel’s remote Ktz’iot prison, according to medical notes from the hospital seen by Reuters. clinic in the occupied West Bank.

The notes say Obaiyat was subjected to “physical and psychological abuse and torture” in prison and describe symptoms including severe anxiety, withdrawal from family and avoidance of discussing traumatic events and current events.

Alleged abuse and psychological harm of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons and camps is back in focus amid stepped-up efforts by international mediators in December to secure a ceasefire that could in turn lead to the release of thousands of prisoners held during the Gaza war and before for Israeli hostages held by a Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza.

If the detainees are released in any future deal, many will “need long-term medical care to recover from the physical and psychological abuse they suffered,” said Qadoura Fares, head of the Palestinian Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, a government body in the West the coast. Fares said he was familiar with Obaiyat’s case.

For this story, Reuters spoke with four Palestinians detained by Israel since the outbreak of war following a Hamas attack on October 7, 2023. All were detained for months, accused of having ties to an illegal organization and released without being formally charged or convicted of any crime.

All described lasting psychological scars they attributed to the abuse, including beatings, sleep and food deprivation, and prolonged restraint in stressful positions while inside. Reuters could not independently verify the conditions in which they were held.

Their statements are consistent with multiple investigations by human rights groups that have reported severe abuse of Palestinians in Israeli custody.

An investigation released by the United Nations Human Rights Office in August described substantiated reports of widespread “torture, sexual assault and rape, amid appalling inhumane conditions” in prisons since the start of the war. The UN office also said the October 7 attacks by Hamas could constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The White House called reports of torture, rape and abuse in Israeli prisons “deeply troubling.”

In response to questions from Reuters, Israel’s military said it was investigating several cases of alleged abuse of prisoners in Gaza by military personnel, but “categorically” rejected allegations of systematic abuse inside its detention facilities.

The military declined to comment on individual cases. Israel’s Prison Service (IPS), which falls under far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, and the country’s internal security service said they were not in a position to comment on individual cases.

“Terrorists in Israeli prisons are provided with supervised living conditions and housing fit for criminals,” Ben Gvir’s office said in response to questions from Reuters, adding that the facilities were operating in accordance with the law. “The ‘summer camp’ is over,” announced Ben Gvir’s office.

Tal Steiner, executive director of the Israeli human rights group Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI), said the symptoms the men recounted are common and can reverberate through victims’ lives, often tearing their families apart.

“Torture in Israeli prisons has exploded since October 7. It will have and has already had a devastating effect on Palestinian society,” Steiner said.

Speaking from his hospital bed in July, a badly exhausted Obaiyat called the treatment of himself and other prisoners “disgusting”, showing the scars on his emaciated legs and describing isolation, hunger, handcuffs and abuse with metal bars, without elaborating.

Photos of Obaiyat taken before his imprisonment show a strong man.

On December 19, Israel’s High Court ordered the state to respond to a petition filed by human rights groups about the lack of adequate food for Palestinian prisoners.

Israel also reported mistreatment of some of its 251 citizens who were trapped in Gaza following the Hamas attack. A report by Israel’s health ministry, released on Saturday, said the hostages were subjected to torture, including sexual and psychological abuse. Hamas has repeatedly denied abusing the hostages.

WITHOUT COMPENSATION

Obaiyat is currently held in a small detention center in Etzion, south of Bethlehem, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, an advocacy group.

He was held for six months under “administrative detention,” a form of imprisonment without charge or trial, and the official reason for his arrest is unknown, the group said. The Israeli army, internal security service and prison service did not respond to questions about his specific case.

PCATI said at least 56 Palestinians died in custody during the war, compared to just one or two a year in the years leading up to the conflict. Israel’s military has said it is launching a criminal investigation into all deaths of Palestinians in its custody.

The number of Palestinian prisoners has at least doubled in Israel and the West Bank to more than 10,000 during the war, PCATI estimates, based on court documents and data obtained through freedom of information requests.

During the war, about 6,000 Gazans were imprisoned, the Israeli military said in response to a Reuters query.

Unlike Palestinians from the West Bank who are held under military law, Palestinians from Gaza are held in Israel under its Unlawful Combatants Law.

According to Professor Neve Gordon, an Israeli scholar specializing in human rights, the law has been used to hold people incommunicado, deny them their rights as prisoners of war or prisoners of military occupation, and imprison them for long periods without charge or trial and international law at Queen Mary University of London .

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club compared the detentions to enforced disappearance.

Israel’s prison service declined to comment on the number and death of prisoners.

CAMP SDE TEIMAN

Fadi Ayman Mohammad Radi, 21, a former engineering student from Khan Younis, Gaza, was one of several dozen Palestinians released at the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza on 20 August.

Radi described struggling to stretch his limbs after being handcuffed and chained for four months in Israel’s Sde Teiman military detention camp, officially a temporary prisoner sorting facility.

They didn’t question us, they destroyed us,” said Radi.

Located in the Negev desert, Sde Teiman was the site of severe abuses, including rape, according to whistleblowers among the camp’s guards.

Israel is currently investigating what the UN has called a “particularly gruesome case” of alleged sexual abuse at Sde Teiman in which five soldiers are accused of anal penetration of a prisoner with a stick that pierced his internal organs.

Radi said that they repeatedly and arbitrarily beat him, constantly tied and blindfolded him, hung him in stressful positions and made him sit almost constantly on the floor without moving.

At one point, he said he was deprived of sleep for five consecutive days in what Israeli soldiers called the ‘disco room’, where he was exposed to loud music. He did not describe sexual violence.

Radi said that it is difficult for him to sleep and that even talking about the ordeal makes him relive it.

“Every time I say those words, I visualize torture,” said Radi, who was arrested by Israeli soldiers in Gaza on March 4.

Reuters could not independently verify his story. Israel’s military said it could not comment, saying it could not find Radio’s files because Reuters could not provide his identification number.

Despite the government’s decision to phase out Sde Teiman, the camp is still operating, PCATI said.

OFER AND KTZ’IOT

Widespread abuse has also been reported in more notorious facilities, such as Ktz’iot prison, also in the Negev, and the Ofer military camp, south of Ramallah in the West Bank.

After gathering evidence and testimony from 55 former Palestinian prisoners, the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem released a report earlier this year accusing Israel of deliberately turning the prison system into a ‘network of torture camps’.

Using emergency laws introduced after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, Ben Gvir, a hardline minister, ordered conditions for ‘security prisoners’, a category made up almost entirely of Palestinians, to be degraded.

Human rights expert Gordon likened what he said was the use of torture in Israeli prisons to terrorism.

“Terrorism is usually an act that is limited in the number of people directly affected, but the psychosocial impact is dramatic. It’s the same with torture,” said Gordon, who co-edited a book on abuse in Israel’s prison system.