UPDATES WITH PALESTINIAN CONDEMNATION
By Abdelraouf Arnaout
JERUSALEM (AA) – Twenty-seven Palestinian detainees from the Gaza Strip have died at Israeli military facilities since last October, according to Haaretz newspaper on Thursday.
The detainees lost their lives at the Sde Teiman and Anatot facilities or while being questioned by Israeli investigators, Haaretz said.
No details were provided by the Israeli army about the death of the Israeli detainees, only saying that some suffered from prior health conditions or were wounded during the Gaza conflict.
The army said an investigation has been launched by the Investigative Military Police into the deaths.
Several Palestinians released by Israel have testified about being beaten and abused by Israeli soldiers during questioning.
Pictures of released detainees showed bruises and marks on their wrists from prolonged handcuffing, Haaretz said.
According to a report by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) published by The New York Times on Tuesday, Palestinian detainees released to Gaza testified that they were beaten, robbed, stripped, sexually assaulted and prevented access to doctors and lawyers.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry denounced the deaths of Palestinian detainees in Israeli custody as a “horrific crime.”
"This crime is part of the atrocities and war of extermination by the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian people in Gaza,” the ministry said in a statement.
It called on the international community to intervene “to protect the Palestinian people against the systematic and widespread crimes of the occupation, especially in Gaza.”
“The crimes of the Israeli occupation must not go unpunished, and justice must be served to the Palestinian victims,” the ministry said.
Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, which Tel Aviv said killed nearly 1,200 people.
More than 30,700 Palestinians have since been killed and over 72,000 others injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.
Israel has also imposed a crippling blockade on the Gaza Strip, leaving its population, particularly residents of northern Gaza, on the verge of starvation.
The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala