File photo shows Israeli forces transferring abducted Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip. (Photo by AFP)
Ramallah, December 26 (RHC)-- A number of Palestinians abducted by the Israeli forces during their ongoing onslaught on the Gaza Strip say they have been subjected to severe torture by the regime's forces. The revelation was made on Sunday by 22-year-old Nayef Ali and 55-year-old Khamis al-Bardini, along with Marwan al-Hams, a hospital director in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, who were quoted by AFP.
Ali, who said he had been abducted in Gaza City's eastern Zaitun suburb before being taken to an Israeli detention facility, showed cuts on his wrists and other parts of his body. "They (Israeli troops) tied our hands behind our backs for two days," he said.
"We were not allowed to eat or drink, neither were we allowed to use the toilet," Ali noted, adding: "There were only beatings and more beatings." He said the Palestinian abductees were put in an area along Gaza's border with the occupied territories where it was "freezing cold."
"They threw cold water on us before transferring us to a prison, where it was again torture and beatings," Ali added.
Bardini, for his part, said the Israeli forces poured "cold water on our heads through the night" in addition to "beatings during the day."
The two Palestinians were among hundreds of Gazans who were abducted by the Israeli military during the regime's genocidal war on the coastal territory, which started on October 7. The Israeli war machine launched the military aggression following an operation by Gaza's resistance movements, dubbed Operation al-Aqsa Storm.
A transnational feminist, anti-imperialist organization has warned that Palestinian women and men are subjected to rape, sexual violence, and torture in Israeli jails. Revelations about tortures suffered by Palestinian abductees come while numerous reports and firsthand accounts by former Israeli and foreign captives, who were held by the resistance fighters in Gaza, show they were treated in a humane and dignified manner.
Elsewhere in his remarks, the hospital director said about 20 Palestinian men released from Israeli custody "have bruises and marks of blows on their bodies," adding that the freed Palestinians were admitted to Rafah's al-Najjar hospital upon their release.
On Wednesday, Mustafa Barghouti, the head of the Palestinian National Initiative party, said testimonies from released Palestinian abductees have revealed that they were subjected to torture by Israeli forces.
Testimonies confirm the Gaza abductees were subjected to all forms of beatings and ill-treatment by Israeli forces during their detention. The abductees were subjected to all forms of beatings and ill treatment during their detention, Barghouti said.
"More than a thousand detainees, including the director of al-Shifa Hospital, are being subjected to brutal torture and severe beatings,” he added in a statement, noting that a number of elderly and sick prisoners have died as a result.
