The Head of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Ajith Sunghay, said that Israel is detaining Palestinians from Gaza on a broad scale, including many civilians, who are being held in secrecy and subjected to ill-treatment, with no access to their families, lawyers or effective judicial protection.
“The families of detainees – believed to number in the thousands – have not been provided with information on the fate or location of their loved ones,” Sunghay said during a press conference in Geneva.
He demanded Israel take urgent steps to ensure that all those arrested or detained are treated in line with international human rights and international humanitarian law norms and standards, notably with full respect for their due process rights.
“Unless Israel can demonstrate imperative security grounds for each person remaining in detention, they must be charged or released.”
He stressed that the Israeli authorities must ensure that families have access to information about their loved ones, and urged that all instances of ill-treatment or torture of people arrested or detained be fully and transparently investigated. If the allegations are proven true, he said, then action must be taken to ensure accountability and to prevent recurrence. “Victims and their families have the right to truth, justice, and reparations.”
He added that there are men who were detained by Israeli forces in unknown locations for between 30 to 55 days. “They described being beaten, humiliated, subjected to ill-treatment, and to what may amount to torture. They reported being blindfolded for long periods – some of them for several consecutive days.”
One man said he had access to a shower only once during his 55 days in detention. There are reports of men who were subsequently released – but only in diapers, without any adequate clothing in this cold weather, added Head of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
The Euro-Med Monitor, a human rights organization, also reported that it had collected testimonies from many Palestinians who had been detained by Israel, and called for an immediate international delegation to investigate what it called war crimes committed by Israel against the detained Palestinians.
