Gaza: Palestinian prisoner rights groups announced Monday that 77 Palestinian detainees have died in Israeli occupation's custody since the onset of the war on Gaza two years ago.
According to Kuwait News Agency, the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, the Palestinian Prisoners Society, and Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association released a joint statement detailing these deaths.
The statement highlighted that many of the deceased were Gaza detainees subjected to forced disappearance. The groups accused Israeli authorities of committing wide-scale violations that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, actions allegedly supported by legal and judicial bodies, including the Israeli Supreme Court. They reported abuses such as torture, deliberate medical neglect, starvation, theft, and collective isolation, describing these as a systematic policy of physical and psychological destruction.
The Palestinian organizations characterized the ongoing situation as "an extended act of genocide." They emphasized that testimonies from released Gaza detainees have unveiled unprecedented levels of abuse, beginning at the moment of arrest and persisting throughout interrogation and detention processes.
Since the war's commencement, over 20,000 Palestinians have been arrested in the West Bank and Jerusalem, including around 1,600 children and nearly 600 women. These figures encompass both current detainees and those who have been released.