Addameer has been monitoring since the beginning of the genocidal war on the Gaza Strip the wide-ranging arrest campaigns conducted by the occupying forces during the ongoing ground incursion. These arrest campaigns have been accompanied by several legal amendments that have allowed for the practice of enforced disappearance, as well as the brutal and dignity-stripping treatment that has led to the death of dozens of detainees in recent months.
All the legal amendments to the "Unlawful Combatant Law" have focused on granting broader powers to issue arrest orders and allowing a time frame for the detention of individuals without being presented to any legal authority for up to 75 days from the start of the arrest. In addition, detainees are not allowed any legal consultation for a period of up to 6 months. Furthermore, several amendments were made to the "1996 Detentions Law," which allowed for the extension of detention each time for a period of 45 days for investigative purposes, which could extend up to 6 months, without any real judicial oversight during this period regarding torture practices and dignity-stripping treatment. Judges practically colluded with torture crimes by extending the detention of hundreds of prisoners without acknowledging that the amendment undermines the fundamental rights of detainees and violates international law, rendering detention arbitrary and constituting a war crime.
These legal measures have enabled the practice of enforced disappearance against detainees in the Gaza Strip, holding them in complete isolation from the outside world. Testimonies from those who have been released during these months, from camps under army control or prisons under the jurisdiction of the occupying prisons authority, as well as accounts from some lawyers who managed to visit some prisoners in recent weeks, clearly indicate severe violations against the prisoners. These violations range from the moment of initial arrest, systematic torture during interrogation, to ongoing assaults and brutal suppression of prisoners while detained in central prisons like Ofer, Naqab, and others.
The prisoners describe being stripped of all their clothes upon arrest, their limbs painfully restrained, and subjected to brutal beatings. This violence continues during their transfer to detention centers like "Sdeh Teiman" or "Anatot," or what some prisoners refer to as "Al-Baraks," without knowing the location of these facilities or their official names.
According to their testimonies, the prisoners are subjected to collective beatings and abuse by soldiers, using profanities that prisoners are unable to repeat. They are also forced to kneel on gravel or asphalt, spending their days with their hands bound and blindfolded, unable to speak to each other. Soldiers remove the thin mattresses from them from the early morning around 5 a.m. until late at night around 9 or 10 p.m.
In addition to all of this, prisoners in army camps undergo interrogation sessions that involve torture and dignity-stripping treatment. Vicious dogs are set upon them, causing severe injuries. Many prisoners have been injured due to being shackled with iron cuffs, and all of them have emphasized the poor healthcare, especially in the "Sdeh Teiman" camp, where some prisoners have had their hands and legs amputated as a result of these policies.
Furthermore, Gaza prisoners in central prisons also face the same brutal attacks by guards, which occur several times daily during raids on their cells. Prisoners have confirmed the martyrdom of two detainees in Ofer prison and spoke of the critical condition of Dr. Adnan al-Barsh when he was brought to Ofer prison. The occupation authorities employ a deliberate policy of starvation against Gaza prisoners, providing them with insufficient food and not allowing them to leave their rooms at all, not even for a short period daily. Some prisoners have not seen the sun since their arrest seven months ago. They are not allowed to change their clothes, as replacements were only provided in the last week of April. Throughout these months, they have not been allowed to cut their hair, beard, or nails, and they are forced to shower at very distant intervals and wear the same dirty clothes. They complained about the foul odors emanating from their clothes, saying they feel like they are living in a "livestock pen." Some prisoners have experienced fainting spells due to malnutrition.
It is worth noting that prisoners who underwent interrogation in official interrogation centers were subjected to torture methods commonly used, such as stress positions for long hours, and the "banana" position, in which the back is bent, in addition to sleep deprivation and violent beatings on body parts, especially the feet and legs. Some prisoners still bear marks of restraints on their wrists to this day, and some have bruises on their chests or stomachs.
It is worth mentioning that the occupation had announced the martyrdom of 27 prisoners from Gaza in the "Sdeh Teiman" camp, while until now, only the identities of six martyrs who fell victim to torture and harsh conditions endured by prisoners from the Gaza Strip in camps and prisons have been confirmed.
Addameer asserts that there is a reasonable basis to claim that the occupying forces are committing war crimes and crimes against humanity against prisoners from the Gaza Strip, in partnership and complicity with the government, judges, prison authorities, police forces, and the occupying army. Therefore, Addameer calls on the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to conduct a special investigation into these crimes against prisoners and to take necessary measures to hold all those responsible for these crimes accountable. Furthermore, it urges all relevant international bodies within the framework of UN procedures to monitor, document, and follow up on these crimes to ensure justice through accountability.