A Palestinian Official Welcomes the UN Stance Calling for the Formation of an International Investigation Committee Regarding the Events in Occupation Prisons

SadaNews - Issam Baker, the Secretary of Foreign Relations and Media in the Higher Committee for the Follow-up of Prisoners and Released Prisoners, and a member of the Palestinian National Council, welcomed the position issued by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights regarding the torture and mistreatment of Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israeli occupation prisons, which called for an impartial, independent, and transparent investigation into the occupation practices against female and male prisoners, including cases of death as per the report.

In statements to the press in Ramallah this morning, "Sunday," he described this position as an important development in the international stance in light of the escalating crimes of the occupation against female and male prisoners, which falls within the framework of ongoing genocide. He called for taking serious and tangible steps and for the committee mentioned by the UN rapporteur, Thamer al-Khaytan, to see the light to immediately begin forming an international committee to visit the prisons to understand the reality of what is happening in them by the occupying state that disregards all norms and international treaties.

Baker affirmed that the horrifying testimonies that emerged from a large number of female and male prisoners from inside the prisons, especially after October 7, 2023, all confirm the commission of crimes against prisoners, including systematic torture leading to death, sexual assaults reaching rape, willful medical neglect, and starvation. This necessitates finding ways to hold the occupying state accountable and punish it for these crimes, which also include the martyrdom of 90 prisoners documented in conditions of detention that contradict international law during the same period, demanding the disclosure of the number of detained individuals whom they refer to as "illegal combatants" and victims of enforced disappearance.

Baker concluded his statement by emphasizing the necessity of working toward a serious international will to provide protection for female and male prisoners, pressuring the occupying state to stop its violations against them, and working with clear tools to implement transitional justice regarding this file by obliging the occupying state to respect the Geneva Conventions and international law, particularly with the approval of the racist death penalty law and the series of measures it is undertaking.