‘Interrogators tried to drown me with toilet water,’ says Palestinian prisoner

- 'For a hundred days, we were beaten just for making any movement and we were handcuffed and blindfolded for the entire time,' says prisoner

RAMALLAH

A Palestinian prisoner who was tortured at Ofer Prison in the occupied West Bank said interrogators tried to drown him with toilet water.

The Palestine Prisoners' Board and the Palestinian Prisoners' Association, both affiliated with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), released a joint report on the torture of a Palestinian prisoner identified only by his initials, G.V., at Ofer Prison in Ramallah.

According to the report, Palestinian prisoner G.V. said: “During the interrogation, the interrogators tried to drown me with toilet water. To this day, we are subjected to torture, humiliation and beatings.”

The prisoner added that he was detained by Israeli soldiers in the Hamad neighborhood of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on March 2. His clothes were taken off, his hands cuffed behind his back, he was blindfolded and he was put in a truck and beaten.

“For a hundred days, we were beaten just for making any movement and we were handcuffed and blindfolded for the entire time,” the prisoner added.

The prisoner who narrated all these incidents is still being held at Ofer Prison, where prisoners are subjected to torture, humiliation, harassment and beatings.

“Surgery without anesthesia, amputation of prisoners’ limbs as a result of constant restraints, rape and sexual assaults at various levels, starvation and other systematic crimes continue to be committed,” it added.

The report emphasized that Israel has held thousands of Palestinians captive from the Gaza Strip and their fates are still unknown.

Israel has continued its brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip following a Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023. The conflict has resulted in over 40,170 Palestinian deaths, mostly women and children, and more than 92,740 injuries, according to local health authorities.

The ongoing blockade of Gaza has led to severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, leaving much of the region in ruins.

Israel faces accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which has ordered a halt to military operations in the southern city of Rafah, where over one million Palestinians had sought refuge before the area was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Gozde Bayar