The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories (B’Tselem) published a 90-page report titled “Welcome to Hell: The Transformation of Israeli Prisons into a Network of Torture Camps” containing the testimonies of 55 Palestinian detainees after their release and details the treatment given to Palestinian prisoners since the outbreak of the new cycle of violence on October 7th, 2023.

Testimonies show that more than a dozen Israeli detention centers, both civilian and military, were transformed into a network of camps whose main objective is to abuse the inmates, the organization warned. “Anyone who passes through the doors of this space is condemned to the most intense, deliberate, and continuous pain and suffering, a space that practically functions as a torture field,” it condemned.

Among the abuses, the NGO cited sexual assault, humiliation, deliberate starvation, poor sanitary conditions, sleep deprivation, the refusal to allow detainees to worship, and the lack of medical care.

Over the years, Israel locked up hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in prisons, which were always used as a tool for oppression and control of the Arab population, indicated the institution, which estimated that these practices are possible because “(Israeli) state mechanisms are undergoing terrifying systemic changes, in a cynical exploitation of loss, fear and revenge that sweep the country” after the attack by Hamas on October 7th, 2023.

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