To Israel: Stop Killing Palestinian Prisoners!
CrossFireArabia- December 31, 2024
Following the news that five more detainees from the Gaza Strip have been killed in a 24-hour period, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor urges the United Nations to take swift action. The UN must send an international investigative mission to look into the grave crimes and violations that Palestinian prisoners and detainees endure in Israeli prisons and detention facilities.
Premeditated killings
Since the October 2023 start of Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, the number of crimes involving premeditated killing, killing under torture, torture, ill-treatment, and enforced disappearances of Palestinian prisoners and detainees—particularly those from the Strip—has increased at an unprecedented rate in the prisons and detention facilities operated by the Israeli army and prison administration authorities. Given the methodical and pervasive way in which these crimes are committed in Israeli prisons and detention facilities, they cannot be regarded as the isolated behaviours of individual perpetrators.
Three detainees from the Gaza and Northern Gaza governorates have been confirmed dead by Euro-Med Monitor. One of them, Mohammed Rashid Saeed Al-Akka (43), was killed in the Negev Prison today (Monday 30 December). He was arrested by Israeli forces in October 2023 at a military checkpoint on Salah Al-Din Street, south of Gaza City, while being forced to move from the Zeitoun neighbourhood to the southern Strip after his neighbourhood and the school-turned-shelter where he had sought safety were both destroyed.
The second detainee, Samir Mahmoud Al-Kahlout, was taken into custody by the Israeli army on 25 October 2024, while he was being treated at Kamal Adwan Hospital. He died on 3 November 2024, just nine days after being taken into custody—the result of ongoing torture that was concealed until yesterday (Sunday 29 December).
Death in Israeli Jail
Ashraf Muhammad Fakhri Abd Abu Warda (51), a resident of Jabalia, in the north of the Strip, was the third detainee. He was arrested on 20 November 2023, while being forced to flee from Jabalia to the southern section of the Strip, and died on 29 December in Israel’s Soroka Hospital, two days after being moved from the Negev Prison to the hospital. Notably, his family has said that he had no health issues.
The fourth inmate was 58-year-old Zuhair Omar Al-Sharif, who had been in custody since 7 October 2023. While he was employed in Israel, he was arrested by the occupation. Al-Sharif was married and had six children. Euro-Med Monitor notes that his family has said that he did not have any health issues. He was killed on 18 October 2023.
The fifth victim was 57-year-old Muhammad Anwar Labad, who was arrested by the Israeli occupation army on 18 November 2024, during his displacement from the north to the south alongside his family. He was married and had eight children. Before his arrest, he suffered from liver cirrhosis and diabetes. He died on 27 November 2024.
The recent deaths of these detainees bring the total number of Palestinian prisoners and detainees killed in Israeli prisons and detention facilities since 7 October 2023 to over 54, including 35 incarcerated individuals from the Gaza Strip. According to former detainees’ testimonies, the true number of victims could be more than twice as high.
Euro-Med Monitor stresses that, given the systematic and pervasive nature of these crimes and the complete immunity enjoyed by their perpetrators, whether at the judicial, political, military, or social levels in Israel, crimes committed in Israeli prisons and detention facilities cannot be seen as isolated behaviours committed by individual “bad apples.”
Pervasive
In addition to the dozens of Palestinians who have suffered physical and psychological injuries with irreversible effects and are now disabled as a result of being subjected to one or more of the 40+ forms of torture and ill-treatment reported by survivors, dozens of prisoners and detainees in Israeli prisons have died in recent months due to harsh detention conditions, torture, and ill-treatment practices. These crimes frequently start at the time of arrest and continue throughout the investigation and detention phase, right up until the moment of release.
In addition to the unprecedented rise in direct and indirect killings of prisoners and detainees, the international community’s continued silence regarding the facts and documented reports of killing, torture, ill-treatment, and rape in Israeli prisons and detention centres, as well as the crime of genocide that has affected all Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and led to the killing and wounding of roughly 7% of them, has given Israel the go-ahead to continue committing these crimes and even intensify them.
In addition to being acts of genocide against the Palestinian people, the crimes committed by the Israeli army and other Israeli security forces against Palestinian prisoners and detainees from the Gaza Strip are also full-fledged war crimes and crimes against humanity. This is especially true given that the crimes are routinely carried out against Palestinians with the intention of destroying them as a people, including by killing them and causing them severe physical and psychological harm through torture, mistreatment, and sexual violence, including rape.
All nations and relevant international organisations must act swiftly and forcefully to prevent Israel’s systematic, pervasive crimes of killing, torture, and other grave violations against Palestinian prisoners and detainees to further intensify. These nations and relevant groups must also immediately and unconditionally free those who are arbitrarily detained, permit visits from qualified local and international organisations to all Israeli facilties, and allow victims to hire attorneys.
These crimes must be investigated by the International Criminal Court, and it is imperative that they be added to the list of charges brought against Israeli officials.
The UN Human Rights Council must fire Alice Gill Edwards, the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, for her demonstrated inability to carry out her mandate, her bias, and her wilful failure to complete her assigned tasks, as she is clearly unable to effectively and impartially address the grave crimes that Palestinian prisoners and detainees endure. Additionally, a new Special Rapporteur must be appointed who is neutral, unbiased, and steadfastly committed to universal humanitarian principles, without discriminating against victims or aggressors based on their race, nationality, religion, or any other status.
In order for the fact-finding and investigation committees and international courts to consider, investigate, and conduct trials regarding Israeli crimes, hold those responsible accountable, and compensate the victims in accordance with the rules of international law, the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, and the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances must perform prompt and thorough investigations into all crimes committed by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip, communicate with the victims and their families, and submit reports on the findings to all pertinent parties.
Baathist Maysaa Sabrine Appointed as Syria’s Central Bank Chief
- CrossFireArabia
- December 30, 2024
Syria’s new interim government is moving full-blast ahead on women’s right. It has just appointed, Monday Maysaa Sabrine as the new governor of the country’s Central Bank. This is the second woman appointment in the new administration of Ahmed Al Sharaa, seen as an Islamist extremist turned liberal.
She becomes the first woman to hold such a top position in the bank’s seven decade history and is expected to lead Syria into the modern age in a post-Baathist government.
But there is a hitch and apparently that doesn’t seem to be much bothering the new government in Damascus for Sabrine has served under the old Baathist regime as deputy governor of the Central Bank for the last six years and holds a degree in accounting.
Thus it would seem the new government is looking for meritocracy than ideological or political affiliation for Sabrine is will versed in the country’s fiscal system having also served on the board of directors of the Syria securities exchange.
Her appointment is trending on the social media as she is the second woman after Aisha Al Dibs who was made head of the Women Affairs Section in the interim administration, an appointment designed to allay the fears of the West who still see this government as an Islamist extremist one.
Therefore the appointment of Sabrine has created much talk among the social media buffs related to those who supported the move and those against it as she was part-and-parcel of the former Baath regime.
But those in favor believe the woman has a wide ranging economic experience that would be essential for the current administration. So maybe practicalities has over-ridden the ideological garb.
Gaza Genocide: Death Toll Spikes to Over 45,000
- CrossFireArabia
- December 30, 2024
The Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip announced, Monday, the death toll from the genocide committed by Israel against the Palestinians has risen to 45,541 dead and 108,338 wounded since October 7, 2023.
The ministry stated in its daily statistical statement the Israeli army “committed three massacres against families in the Gaza Strip, with 27 martyrs and 149 wounded arriving to hospitals in the past 24 hours.”
It reported “the death toll from the Israeli aggression has risen to 45,541 martyrs and 108,338 wounded since October 7, 2023.”
The ministry indicated there are victims under the rubble of destroyed homes and on the roads, but the civil defense and ambulance crews are unable to reach them due to the repeated Israeli targeting.
The Israeli genocide since 7 October, 2023 with American support has caused the loss of more than 11,000 Palestinians, amid massive destruction and famine that killed dozens of children and the elderly.
Israel continues its massacres, ignoring two arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court on 21 November against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Galant, for committing war crimes and crimes against humanity against Palestinians in Gaza.
Tel Aviv has turned Gaza into the largest prison in the world, besieging it for the 18th year, and the war of extermination has forced about two million of its citizens, numbering about 2.3 million Palestinians, to flee in tragic conditions with a deliberate severe shortage of food, water and medicine.
For decades, Israel has occupied lands in Palestine, Syria and Lebanon, and refuses to withdraw from them and establish an independent Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital, on the borders before the 1967 war as reported in Anadolu.
Six Babies Freeze to Death in Gaza
- CrossFireArabia
- December 30, 2024
Seven Palestinians, including six babies and a nurse, have died from the extreme cold in war-torn Gaza Strip over the past few nights, according to the Government Media Office. The death toll is expected to rise due to the dire conditions faced by displaced people.
In a statement issued, Monday, the Office said, “The death toll from extreme cold and frost waves among the displaced in tents, whose homes were destroyed by the Israeli occupation, has risen to seven, and the number is expected to increase due to the dire conditions.”
“We have repeatedly warned of the dangers posed by the approaching weather fronts, the winter season, and the cold waves, which coincide with the tragic reality faced by our Palestinian people,” the Office added.
“They are enduring killing, genocide, and the destruction of homes and vital infrastructure and forced displacement.”
“It is expected that heavy rains will continue to fall, along with ongoing frost waves and cold weather in the coming days, posing a great risk and a real threat to the lives of the displaced who are enduring tragic suffering.”
The Office said the “Israeli occupation has forced them to flee to dilapidated tents that do not protect them from the winter cold or severe frost waves.”
Frozen to Death
Six Palestinian babies have frozen to death in Gaza over the past few nights, including three who died of hypothermia in the so-called “humanitarian zone” in al-Mawasi, and 20-day-old twins born one month prematurely.
Palestinian nurse Ahmed al-Zaharneh, who was among the crews working at the European Gaza Hospital, also died on Friday because of “extreme” weather conditions, according to the Health Ministry.
The Ministry said, “His body was found inside his tent in al-Mawasi area, west of the city of Khan Younis, southern Gaza.”
“This incident comes in light of the difficult humanitarian conditions that displaced citizens are experiencing, as the suffering of Gaza residents increases due to low temperatures and the lack of heating means in tents,” the Ministry added.
Dilapidated Tents
The deaths highlight the dire conditions in Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians are crammed into makeshift tents, fleeing Israeli shelling from various parts of the strip.
Gaza’s Government Media Office stated on Saturday that 110,000 out of 135,000 tents used by displaced Palestinians in the war-torn Gaza Strip are now out of service and have “completely deteriorated”.
The Office accused the Israeli military of “causing a tragic humanitarian crisis” that is once again putting the lives of thousands of civilians at risk as the freezing winter sets in.
“This catastrophic humanitarian situation is a direct result of the genocide committed by the ‘Israeli’ occupation army, which has completely destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes of these citizens, forcing them to resort to living in tents that lack the minimum requirements for a decent life,” the statement said according to the Quds News Network.
