Gaza Herald – As Palestinians marked Eid al-Adha this week, hundreds of Palestinian children and women remained imprisoned inside Israeli jails, separated from their families and subjected to systematic abuse and “organized extermination policies” carried out against detainees.
In a statement released on the occasion of Eid, Abdullah al-Zaghari, head of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, said that around 360 Palestinian children, including three girls, are currently being held in Israeli detention camps, alongside 84 female detainees, among them dozens of mothers who were forcibly taken from their children and families.
He said the Israeli occupation continues to deprive more than 9,400 Palestinian and Arab detainees of their freedom and basic human dignity inside prisons and military detention camps, amid an escalating campaign of systematic repression.
According to al-Zaghari, Palestinian detainees are facing unprecedented levels of abuse through “a comprehensive system of torture, oppression, and organized humiliation,” which has led to the deaths of more than 100 detainees since the beginning of Israel’s genocide on Gaza. The identities of 89 of those killed in detention have so far been confirmed.
He added that Palestinian detainees endure daily policies of starvation, torture, deprivation, psychological abuse, and sexual violence, including rape, alongside increasingly violent crackdowns by Israeli prison authorities since the start of the war on Gaza.
Al-Zaghari also accused the Israeli occupation of deliberately preventing families from visiting imprisoned relatives in an effort to isolate detainees psychologically and emotionally from the outside world.
He highlighted the case of detainees from Gaza and thousands of missing Palestinians, saying that their situation is among the most painful and severe issues currently facing Palestinian society. Testimonies from Gaza detainees, he said, reveal “horrific levels of torture and violations beyond description.”
According to the statement, the number of Palestinians currently classified by Israel as “unlawful combatants” has reached 1,283 detainees.
The ongoing Israeli genocide on Gaza has resulted in the killing of more than 72,000 Palestinians and the injury of over 172,000 others, while widespread destruction has devastated approximately 90% of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure. The United Nations has estimated reconstruction costs at nearly $70 billion.
At the same time, cities and towns across the occupied West Bank continue to witness repeated Israeli military raids, mass arrests, and violent incursions. According to data published Monday by the Palestinian government media office, these attacks have resulted in the killing of 1,168 Palestinians, the injury of 12,666 others, the detain of nearly 23,000 Palestinians, and the displacement of around 33,000 residents.
