ISTANBUL

Palestinian group Hamas denounced on Thursday the systematic killing and torture of Palestinian detainees in Israeli detention, calling for international action to stop these abuses.

Citing human rights data, Hamas said that 94 Palestinians were killed in Israeli prisons since the start of Tel Aviv’s genocidal war in the Gaza Strip in October 2023.

“This reflects an organized criminal approach that has turned these prisons into direct killing grounds to eliminate our people,” it added in a statement on its official Telegram channel.

Palestinian prisoners are subjected to inhumane violations, “including severe beatings, scalding with boiling water, attacks by dogs, and sexual assaults,” which are proven by firsthand testimonies and credible human rights reports, Hamas said.

It decried the Israeli practices as “full-fledged war crimes under international humanitarian law that expose the brutal nature of the (Israeli) occupation’s regime.”

Hamas called on the international community, the UN, and human rights organizations to take immediate action to exert pressure on Israel to stop crimes against prisoners and guarantee their rights as upheld by all international covenants and norms.

According to a report submitted by Israeli human rights organizations to the UN Committee Against Torture, Palestinian detainees are subjected to severe torture, including rape with several objects, physical assaults by batons, scalding with boiling water, dog attacks, exposure to severe cold, sleep and food deprivation, and denial of medical care.

At least 94 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli custody since October 2023, the report said.

Israel denies the existence of systematic violations, a claim rejected by human rights groups urging urgent international intervention to halt what they describe as “systematic crimes” against detainees.

More than 10,000 Palestinians, including women and children, are currently held in Israeli prisons, according to Palestinian, Israeli and international human rights groups.

Since October 2023, abuses against Palestinian prisoners have escalated as the Israeli army has killed nearly 70,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, and injured 171,000 others in a brutal war that has left much of the enclave in ruins.