RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories: The Palestinian Authority asked diplomats in a Wednesday meeting in the occupied West Bank to speak out on “unacceptable” conditions suffered by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
Varsen Aghabekian Shahin, the Palestinian minister of state for foreign affairs, invited mostly European diplomats as well as representatives from international organizations to show them a three-minute video containing testimonies from Palestinians detained by Israel in recent months.
The compilation of footage and media interviews point to mistreatment in Israeli jails and allegations of torture, which Israeli authorities deny.
“This is unacceptable, this is against all human rights laws, and it needs to stop,” Shahin told the meeting in Ramallah, seat of the Palestinian Authority.
The conditions of prisoners “is of much concern to us, Palestinians, and we hope it is to the world as well,” she added.
The foreign ministry, citing figures from advocacy and rights groups, said some 9,600 Palestinians are currently detained by Israel.
Arrests and Israeli military raids in the West Bank have intensified since the Gaza war broke out with Hamas’s October 7 attack.
The Israeli prison authority has declared a “state of emergency,” effectively allowing it to worsen conditions for inmates and restrict jail visits.
According to a report handed out during Wednesday’s meeting, 18 prisoners have been “killed” in Israeli prisons since October 7.
Qadura Fares, head of the Palestinian Prisoners Club advocacy group, stressed it was often difficult to obtain information about detainees, including thousands arrested in Gaza since the start of the war, of whom he said most have probably been released.
“I believe the international community has the tools to help stop what is happening,” Fares said at the meeting.
“So is there a will in the international community to stop what is happening, or is there not?“
In December, the Israeli military said it had launched an investigation into the death in custody of several Palestinians arrested in Gaza and held at the Sde Teiman base near the city of Beersheva.
Several diplomats who attended the Ramallah meeting refused to comment when approached by AFP.
Last week a spokeswoman for the United Nations rights office said it had “been receiving very worrying, very distressing reports of how Palestinian detainees are being treated by Israeli forces since October 7.”
Palestinians ask diplomats to speak out on conditions in Israeli jails
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Palestinians ask diplomats to speak out on conditions in Israeli jails
- “This is unacceptable, this is against all human rights laws, and it needs to stop,” Shahin told the meeting in Ramallah, seat of the Palestinian Authority
Health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says war death toll at 42,847
- The toll includes 55 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry
The toll includes 55 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry, which said 100,544 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.
Lebanon needs help to expand army and rebuild, caretaker PM tells Paris summit
PARIS: International support will be needed to shore up and expand Lebanon’s army and rebuild the country’s destroyed infrastructure, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati told a Paris conference convened amid Israel’s assault on Hezbollah.
Mikati said the Lebanese government had decided to recruit more troops and could deploy 8,000 soldiers as part of a plan to implement a ceasefire and UN Security Council resolution, which calls for the army to be deployed in southern Lebanon.
Putin says Middle East ‘on brink of full-scale war’
KAZAN: Russian President Vladimir Putin told a BRICS summit on Thursday that the Middle East was on the verge of full-scale war.
“The military action that started a year ago in Gaza has now spread to Lebanon. Other countries in the region are also affected,” Putin told a meeting in Kazan attended by several world leaders.
“The level of confrontation between Israel and Iran has sharply risen. This is all reminiscent of a chain reaction and puts the whole Middle East on the verge of full-scale war,” Putin said.
Violence in the Middle East will not end until the creation of an independent Palestinian state, Putin said at the summit, attended by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.
“The key demand for restoring peace and stability on Palestinian territories is carrying out the two-state formula approved by the UN Security Council and General Assembly,” the Russian president said.
He added that this would be “correcting the historical injustice toward the Palestinian people.”
“Until this question is resolved, it will not be possible to break the vicious circle of violence.”
Hamas wants Russia to push Palestinian president toward unity government for post-war Gaza
- The Palestinian Authority, the governing body of the occupied Palestinian territories, is controlled by Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah political faction
MOSCOW: Palestinian militant group Hamas wants Russia to push Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to begin negotiations on a national unity government for post-war Gaza, a senior Hamas official told the RIA state news agency after talks in Moscow.
Mousa Abu Marzouk, a Hamas politburo member, met Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov in Moscow.
“We discussed issues related to Palestinian national unity and the creation of a government that should govern the Gaza Strip after the war,” Marzouk was quoted as saying by RIA.
Marzouk said that Hamas had asked Russia to encourage Abbas, who is attending the BRICS summit in Kazan, to start negotiations about a unity government, RIA reported.
Abbas is head of the Palestinian Authority (PA), the governing body of the occupied Palestinian territories.
The PA was set up three decades ago under the interim peace agreement known as the Oslo Accords and exercises limited governance over parts of the occupied West Bank, which Palestinians want as the core of a future independent state.
The PA, controlled by Abbas’ Fatah political faction, has long had a strained relationship with Hamas, the Islamist movement that runs Gaza, and the two factions fought a brief war before Fatah was expelled from the territory in 2007.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed strong opposition to the PA being involved in running Gaza.
Israeli attack on Lebanese bank violates international humanitarian law, says UN expert
- Israel attacked the offices of Al-Qard Al-Hasan bank, which it claims finances Hezbollah
- The bank offers small interest-free loans and undertakes charitable activities
NEW YORK: Israel’s multiple bombings of a financial institution in Lebanon earlier this week were illegal attacks on civilian objects under international humanitarian law, an independent human rights expert said on Wednesday.
Ben Saul, the UN special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, said that attacks on economic infrastructure are illegal “even if they indirectly sustain (the adversary’s) military activities.”
Ahead of the attack, Israel issued public warnings that it would strike the offices of Al-Qard Al-Hasan bank, which it claims finances Hezbollah.
The bank offers small interest-free loans and undertakes charitable activities. It has thousands of customers and multiple branches across Lebanon.
In armed conflict, only “military objectives” whose destruction “offers a definite military advantage” can be attacked, Saul said.
The economic activities of an adversary do not effectively contribute to military action, he added.
“Bombing banks obliterates the distinction between civilian objects and military objectives which is fundamental to protecting civilians from violence. It opens the door to ‘total war’ against civilian populations, where fighting is no longer limited to attacking militarily dangerous targets,” the expert said. “Such attacks jeopardize the right to life.”
Saul warned that international counterterrorism law does not authorize military attacks to prevent alleged terrorist financing or money laundering.
“Bombing banks is not a lawful solution to the challenges of financial crime and regulation,” he said.
To suppress terrorist financing, states should instead resort to administrative and criminal law measures, Saul added.
The attacks were the latest escalation of violence in Lebanon over the past year, with more than 2,400 people killed and 1.2 million displaced, according to the UN.
Saul joined other UN officials in calling for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
