A 37-year-old Palestinian from Bethlehem, receives care at a hospital following his release days earlier after being detained by Israeli forces, in Beit Jala in the Israeli occupied West Bank, on July 11, 2024. (AFP photo)
Bethlehem, July 15 (RHC)-- Israeli forces have kidnapped scores of Palestinians in attacks on several cities in the occupied Palestinian territories. Rights groups say all the detainees have been severely beaten and tortured.
The regime’s military forces raided the cities of Ramallah, al-Quds, al-Khalil, Jenin, and several other cities, said the Palestinian Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society in a joint statement on Sunday.
The military forces detained at least 30 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank overnight, the statement said. “The detainees were subjected to abuse, severe beatings, and threats against their families in addition to widespread acts of sabotage and destruction of citizens’ homes,” it said.
The latest arrests brought the number of Palestinians kidnapped by the Israeli forces in the West Bank to 9,655 since early October, it said.
In the Gaza Strip, the regime’s forces have kidnapped at least 5,000 Palestinians since October 7, when the military launched its bloodiest-ever war in the besieged territory, said the Gaza media office.
The fate of many of them or the conditions of their detention are still unknown, said the media office.
The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Alice Jill Edwards, said previously that he received reports that Palestinians were being beaten, kept in cells blindfolded and handcuffed for excessive periods, deprived of sleep, and threatened with physical and sexual violence.
Other reports suggest detainees have been insulted and exposed to acts of humiliation, such as being photographed and filmed in degrading poses. The UN expert urged the regime to allow immediate access to international human rights and humanitarian observers to all the places in which Palestinians have been detained since October.
Human rights groups have repeatedly raised the alarm about “unprecedented difficult conditions” in which all Palestinian detainees, including women, are being held. Around 80 female detainees are currently being held in the regime prisons.
