An Israeli military doctor has presented a horrendous testimony on the appalling and fairly inhumane conditions of sick Palestinian prisoners being held at a detention center in Israel.
Tel Aviv, August 19 (RHC)-- An Israeli military doctor has presented a horrendous testimony on the appalling and fairly inhumane conditions of sick Palestinian prisoners being held at a detention center in Israel.
The unnamed doctor revealed in his testimony, published in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, that he found nearly 20 patients in one tent shackled to old steel beds and blindfolded all the time when he stepped into the notorious Sde Teiman Prison at the Negev Desert last winter.
He said many of the detainees had already undergone major surgeries or had suffered gunshot wounds, some occurring just hours before their arrival at the detention center, which he described as a stockade.
The doctor spoke about the suffering of a wounded man, who was transferred to prison shortly after undergoing a sensitive surgery, and another who suffered from sepsis without receiving any medical follow-up.
He said torture in Sde Teiman includes detaining prisoners naked and blindfolded and preventing them from speaking or moving their limbs for long periods that amount to a month.
Several reports have previously revealed details about killing, torture, sexual assaults, and other violations against detainees in Sde Teiman.
The so-called Israeli Supreme Court is considering a petition submitted by five Israeli human rights organizations demanding immediate closure of the prison.
Earlier this month, Israeli human rights group B’Tselem said thousands of Palestinian prisoners are facing systematic abuse and torture in Israeli jails and detention centers ever since the Tel Aviv regime unleashed its brutal Gaza onslaught in early October last year.
B’Tselem said in a report on August 6 that testimonies from 55 former Palestinian detainees revealed “inhuman conditions,” and that more than a dozen prison facilities were being used as “de facto torture camps.”
“The testimonies clearly indicated a systematic, institutional policy focused on the continual abuse and torture of all Palestinian prisoners held by Israel,” the report said.
Former inmates described “frequent acts of severe, arbitrary violence; sexual assault; humiliation and degradation, deliberate starvation; forced unhygienic conditions (and) sleep deprivation,” it added.
The Israeli military is believed to have detained thousands of Palestinians, including women, children and medics, ever since it started its devastating ground and aerial offensives against Gaza. Those released have shown signs of torture.
