Human Rights and Democracy Media Center- SHAMS, urged the International Red Cross Committee, the United Nations, and the International Governmental/ Non- Governmental organizations to interfere immediately, to face the law, passed by the Israeli Knesset, to extend the validity of the regulation to deny Palestinian prisoners from the Gaza Strip, the right to seek lawyers’ support, for another four months. SHAMS Center affirmed that the decision violates the International Human Rights Law, mainly the Geneva third and fourth Conventions. Additionally, the Israeli policies violate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant of Civic and Political Rights. The arrogance procedures of the Israeli occupation are classified as forms of torture. In this regard, the Israeli prison authorities admitted that the Israeli occupation is arresting 661 prisoners from the Gaza Strip. Those prisoners are classified (by the Israeli occupation) as illegal fighters. There are also 50 women detainees from the Gaza Strip at Al-Damon Prison (8 of them were released recently).
SHAMS Center affirms that the Israeli decision represents a manifestation of enforced disappearance, which is a kind of depriving liberty practiced by a state agent and denying recognition of depriving the person of his liberty or hiding his destination, which deprives him of legal protection. In addition to the genocide crimes committed against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where 25 thousand Palestinians were killed and 62 thousand were wounded, the Israeli occupation authorities are proceeding with oppressive and arrogant procedures against Palestinians in general. Prisoners, mainly the prisoners from the Gaza Strip, are the most targeted group by the occupation’s procedures and policies. The prisoners from the Gaza Strip are classified as illegal fighters by the Israeli prison authorities and they are deprived of receiving the services of lawyers. New detention establishments were built for Palestinian prisoners from the Gaza Strip in the Negev and Jerusalem areas. Prisoners in these detention facilities are subject to various forms of torture and they are deprived of food and drinking water. The prisoners from the Gaza Strip are from various social segments including, workers, women, minors, and fighters. Therefore, it is ridiculous to term them as “illegal fighters” as the absolute majority of them are civilians who are granted special protection under armed conflicts, according to international law and international humanitarian law.
SHAMS Center stresses that the Israeli decision serves as a profound violation of international humanitarian law and international law. Primarily, it violates the rules and principles endorsed by the Geneva Third Convention (dated 12/8/1949), regarding treating war prisoners, especially Articles 70, 71, 122, and 123. The Israeli decision represents a crime against humanity according to Rome Statute- 1998, which functioned as the base for establishing the International Criminal Court. Article 7 of the Statute considered enforced disappearance as a crime against humanity. Furthermore, it violates the United Nations Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 18/12/1992. It violates rule number 117 of the International Red Cross Rules, which stipulates that: “Each party to the conflict must take all feasible measures to account for persons reported missing as a result of armed conflict and must provide their family members with any information it has on their fate”. These measures are applicable to the international and non-international conflicts.
SHAMS Center affirms that the law passed by the Israeli Knesset is full enforcement of disappearance crime. Where the Israeli authorities make use of the fact that the world is busy following up on the crimes that are taking place in the Gaza Strip, to proceed in torturing prisoners and enforcing disappearance. Such a practice indicates that all the structures of the occupation’s state, including the government, army, and Knesset, are involved in the crimes committed against Palestinians. The law represents a form of legalizing the crimes committed against Palestinians and torturing Palestinian prisoners, in general, and prisoners from the Gaza Strip in particular is being legalized by the Israeli legislative institution. The Israeli authorities, by such crimes, are trying to revenge on Palestinians by torturing Palestinian prisoners inside the Israeli prisons. By doing so, the Israeli authorities utilize torturing prisoners and revenge from civilian Palestinians, to compensate for the failure of its aggression on the Gaza Strip.
SHAMS Center deplores the oppressive measures applied by the Israeli authorities against Palestinian prisoners from the Gaza Strip where torturing them starts at the moment of arrest and continues during the detention term. The purpose of these practices is to humiliate prisoners and extract confessions from them. The prisoners are tortured and subject to degrading inhumane treatment as well as depriving them of their basic needs where their suffering increases during winter. The occupation authorities do not respect the United Nations Minimum Rules to Treat Prisoners- Mandela Rules, which affirm providing prisoners and interrogated persons with basic needs including water, food, medicine, and appropriate living conditions inside prisons.
SHAMS Center expresses concern about the status of Palestinian prisoners, especially with the rapid increase in the number of detainees from the Gaza Strip and the absence of clear data about the number of those prisoners. According to the latest reports released by the Israeli army, there are 2300 prisoners from the Gaza Strip arrested since the beginning of the aggression on 7/10/2023. However, the estimated actual number of prisoners is much bigger than that. The Israeli authorities classify those prisoners as illegal fighters. There is no specific data about the arrested children and women. A report released by the Israeli prison authorities recently stated that there are 50 arrested women from the Gaza Strip (8 of them were released).
SHAMS Center urges the International Red Cross Committee, the Special Rapporteur on Enforced Disappearances, international governmental and non-governmental organizations, and the International Committee on Enforced Disappearances arising from the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, to take urgent action and fulfill the legal and ethical responsibilities assigned to them by monitoring all matters related to cases of enforced disappearance affecting hundreds of Palestinian citizens in the Gaza Strip, by the Israeli occupying forces. These individuals are held in difficult and complex humanitarian conditions, subjected to abuse, torture, and deprivation, and denied visits from their lawyers. Their whereabouts, conditions, and health status are unknown.