Gaza Herald_ The Prisoners’ Media Office said on Wednesday that international silence regarding what Palestinian prisoners are subjected to inside Israeli prisons is no less dangerous than the violations themselves, warning that this continued neglect constitutes political and moral cover allowing Israel to persist in its crimes without accountability.
The office stressed that the absence of serious action by the international community and human rights institutions grants Israeli authorities a green light to continue their repressive policies against thousands of prisoners, in flagrant violation of international laws and conventions that guarantee the protection and dignity of detainees.
Systematic Torture and Entrenched Repressive Policies
The office explained that beatings, deliberate humiliation, forced restraints, and the conversion of prisoners’ rooms into suffocating cells are no longer isolated or exceptional incidents, but have become a fixed and systematic policy inside Israeli prisons.
It noted that daily repression has become a central instrument of prison administration, aimed at psychologically and physically breaking Palestinian prisoners and stripping them of their humanity, as part of a collective punishment regime that contradicts the most basic standards of justice and human rights.
Prison Winter, Cold as a Weapon of Abuse
The Prisoners’ Media Office stated that detainees are facing what has become known as the “prison winter,” where they are denied blankets and warm clothing and confined to damp rooms whose windows are forcibly left open despite low temperatures, exposing them to serious health risks.
It emphasized that cold is deliberately used as a method of systematic torture designed to exhaust the body and drain the spirit, especially amid poor nutrition, lack of medical care, and harsh detention conditions that further intensify prisoners’ suffering.
Isolation and Starvation: Tools to Break the Palestinian Human Being
The office warned of the grave consequences of the continuation of these policies, stressing that cold, starvation, and solitary confinement are not emergency or exceptional conditions, but organized tools of torture practiced against thousands of Palestinian prisoners inside Israeli jails.
The statement pointed out that prisoners today are not only facing incarceration, but are confronting a harsh winter with bodies weakened by detention and bones worn down by cold, in the absence of any real legal or humanitarian protection.
A Flagrant Violation of International Law and a Call for Urgent Action
The Prisoners’ Media Office stressed that leaving prisoners under these conditions constitutes a blatant violation of the Geneva Conventions and all international treaties that criminalize torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.
The office called on the international community, the United Nations, and human rights organizations to assume their legal and moral responsibilities and to take urgent and concrete action to halt these violations, pressure Israel to end its repressive policies, and ensure the minimum humanitarian rights of Palestinian prisoners.
