Palestinians killed in Israeli prisons: ‘If this is not genocide, then what is?’

By Rabia Ali

ISTANBUL (AA) - The recent death of a prominent doctor in an Israeli jail has once again turned attention to the suffering of Palestinians in Israeli detention, with advocates characterizing the situation as part of Israel’s ongoing deadly onslaught against Palestinians.

Qadura Fares, a Palestinian politician and head of the Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, sees it as another genocide taking place inside Israeli prisons.

“If this is not a genocide, then what is a genocide?” Fares said in an interview with Anadolu.

Last week, the Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS), with whom Fares is also associated, identified Dr. Adnan al-Bursh, a prominent 50-year-old surgeon, as one of two Palestinians recently killed in Israeli custody.

Al-Bursh, who was the head of orthopedics at Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital, was arrested by Israeli forces in December while he was treating patients at another medical facility in northern Gaza.

He was declared dead by Ofer prison authorities on April 19, according to the PPS, but his body has still not been released.

A cause of death has also not been pronounced, but the PPS said the doctor was tortured and called his death an “assassination.”

Since Oct. 7, when Israel launched its ongoing war on Gaza, Israeli forces have arrested and detained thousands of Palestinians, while at least 18 have died in Israeli prisons.

“They (Palestinians) have been killed by Israeli forces ... They (Israelis) are torturing, beating them. They are not giving them medical attention,” said Fares.

Of the 18 confirmed deaths, six were from Gaza and 10 from the occupied West Bank, he said.

Fares said these are just the people who have been identified and he suspects many more Palestinians from Gaza have been killed in Israeli detention.

While there is no confirmed information available on the issue, he pointed out that Israeli media outlets have reported that at least another 40 prisoners have died in Israeli jails.

- Harrowing conditions

According to Fares, at least 9,500 Palestinians from the West Bank, Jerusalem and the occupied territories of 1948 are in Israeli custody.

“But we have no exact information about the number or the names of the prisoners from Gaza,” he said, adding that there are reports that their number is around 2,000 to 2,500.

According to data available on the website of the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, 3,660 individuals are ‘administrative detainees,’ meaning they have not been charged with any crime or given the right to trial.

More than 200 minors are in Israeli custody, some as young as 8, according to Fares.

There are also at least 79 women, who are facing the same abuse and torture as men, he said.

After Oct. 7, Israel has stopped all family visits, while also denying detainees access to lawyers or other aid workers, he said.

He also pointed out that Israel rearrested 11 Palestinians who were recently released under the deals for humanitarian pauses in Gaza, calling on “mediators like the US, Qatar, and Egypt to fulfill their responsibility.”

Global rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have documented various cases of Palestinians dying in Israeli custody, with testimonies from lawyers of torture and other ill-treatment.

Several Palestinians released from Israeli custody have also narrated ordeals of beatings, sexual assault, starvation and all forms of harrowing abuse.

Fares asserted that Palestinian prisoners, including the sick, women and children, are “tortured and humiliated every day.”

“We said at the beginning of this ugly war against the Palestinian people that a war has also begun inside Israeli jails,” he said.

He said Palestinians are facing new Israeli tactics of starving prisoners.

“They are hungry all the time ... There are a lot of people in very small rooms. They doubled the number in rooms … This winter, prisoners suffered a lot because they didn’t have blankets,” he said.

- ‘Killed by beatings’

Of the 18 Palestinians killed in Israeli jails since Oct. 7, Fares said at least 10 had been tortured.

He narrated instances where prisoners were attacked by 10 or 15 Israeli soldiers, who “beat them everywhere; on the head, the face, everywhere until they couldn’t move.”

Three Palestinian prisoners – Khaled Jamal Shawish, Thayer Abu Assab, Abdul Rahman al-Bahash – were “killed by beatings,” he said.

Others were killed due to medical negligence and deliberate prevention of medicines, such as Arafat Hamdan, who had diabetes and was not allowed access to his medicines, he said.

Another Palestinian man, Majed Zaqoul, who was from Gaza but arrested from the West Bank, was a cancer patient, but Israeli soldiers refused to give him medicine, he said.

Mohammed Ahmad al-Sabar from Hebron would not have died if they had given him his medicine, “which means that he was killed,” Fares added.

- No grounds for detention

Fares said more than 60% of Palestinians taken into Israeli custody after Oct. 7 are under administrative detention.

The other 40% have been arrested on what Israel terms incitement, which could be something as minor as any social media post, he said.

He said Israelis have taken away Palestinians for posts such as “Freedom for Palestine” or expressing similar sentiments.

They have even picked up people for posting a photo of a V-sign without any words, or if they said anything about any Palestinian who was killed, he said.

“All of this is shown as incitement. There are hundreds of prisoners, men and women, arrested for such things,” said Fares.

This is “a kind of quiet war against the Palestinian people” as they want us to live in fear, he added.

- No confidence in international bodies

Israel’s behavior and blatant violation of human rights stems from the fact that it does not view itself as a state with responsibilities, said Fares.

As for reprieve from international institutions and courts, he said they have persistently failed to do anything for Palestinian prisoners.

A long time ago, he said, the Palestinian government asked the International Criminal Court to investigate three issues: Israel’s actions in Gaza, illegal settlement activity, and the conditions of Palestinian prisoners.

“Until this moment, we don’t feel that there is a real investigation,” said Fares.

“There is no justice … We have no real confidence in these institutions.”

International courts and other legal bodies have to prove that they are serious about this issue, and they have to hold Israel accountable, he said.

Israel has to be told it will face consequences for these actions because right now it believes it has “a green light to continue humiliating the Palestinian people and prisoners,” he added.