Hamas yesterday called for an international investigation to look into the conditions of Palestinians in Israeli jails after ten Israeli reservists were detained for gang raping a Palestinian detainee in the Sde Teiman Prison, Anadolu reported.

 “We demand an international committee investigate these horrific and brutal crimes against the prisoners,” Hamas said.
It stressed the necessity for the world, the UN and rights groups to turn their attention “to the [Israeli] occupation’s prisons and the disappeared people in them to follow up their conditions and unknown fate.”
In a statement cited by the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, the head of the official Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Commission, Qadura Fares, also urged the international community to “urgently intervene to stop the unprecedented crimes committed against Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails.”
“The farce that the occupation military police came up with, and their detention of several soldiers aim to mislead world public opinion,” he said.
Fares affirmed that the Israeli crimes against Palestinian detainees “no longer have any conceivable limits.”
Several reports emerged of severe abuses against Palestinian detainees at the notorious facility since the start of Israel’s ongoing offensive on the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli army is believed to have detained thousands of Palestinians, including women, children and medics since 7 October 2023. Those released have shown signs of torture.
Both CNN and the New York Times have reported on the abuse of Palestinians in Israeli detention since the bombing of Gaza began. While Israeli human rights organisations filed a petition with the High Court of Justice seeking the closure of the detention centre at the Sde Teiman military base in the Negev due to allegations of torture of Palestinian detainees from Gaza at the facility.
This led to Israel’s Attorney-General demanding in July that Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, close the facility “immediately”.
The Israel Prison Service (IPS) then began relocating 140 Palestinian prisoners from Gaza who were held at the Sde Teiman detention facility. They were moved to other military facilities.
However Israel’s National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has publicly called for harsher detention conditions. Following yesterday’s news he tweeted: “Take your hands off our reservists.”
In recent months, the army has released dozens of Palestinian detainees from Gaza in deteriorating health conditions, with their bodies bearing torture scars.
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Palestinian group Hamas.
More than 39,360 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and nearly 91,000 injured, according to local health authorities.
Over nine months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.