The Palestinian Authority on Wednesday announced its commitment to guarantee the release of the thousands of Palestinian Arabs held in Israeli prisons, including “a large number of women and minors who were kidnapped in the Gaza Strip during the past six months.”
In an official statement issued in observance of Prisoner’s Day, the PA’s foreign affairs department urged for an inquiry into Israel, labeled as “the occupying authority,” regarding its alleged “policy of torture targeting Palestinian detainees, encompassing instances of sexual abuse and the assault of men, women, and minors.”
The PA department contended that “the Israeli occupation has maintained a longstanding strategy of apprehension, abduction, and mistreatment, resulting in the suffering of over a million Palestinians. Furthermore, the occupation persists in its inhumane practice of withholding the bodies of Palestinians following their death or mistreatment at the hands of Israeli occupation forces.”
According to reports from the official PA news agency Wafa, “the State of Palestine affirms its ongoing legal, political, and diplomatic efforts to safeguard the just cause of Palestinian prisoners and detainees, advocating for their rightful freedom and an end to the occupation, thereby securing the Palestinian people’s inherent rights, notably the right to self-determination.”
While the PA has leveled accusations of sexual violence by Israelis against detainees, such claims remain unverified. Although UN experts have alleged instances of IDF soldiers sexually assaulting Palestinian Arab women and girls in custody, concrete evidence supporting these assertions has not been provided.
Conversely, the perpetration of sexual crimes by Hamas during its October 7 assault on Israel was substantiated in a recent report published by UN Special Rapporteur Pramila Patten.
{Matzav.com}
