Radio Havana, Cuba | Human rights group reports Israel intentionally leaks torture footage of Palestinian prisoners

Ramallah, September 8 (RHC) – The Palestinian Prisoners Society says Israel has deliberately released shocking footage of the torture of Palestinian prisoners in its prisons to spread fear and terror among the Palestinian population.

Leaked footage from Israeli newspaper Haaretz and circulating on social media shows Palestinian abductees being brutally tortured in the regime’s Megiddo prison. The Palestinian men can be seen being attacked by police dogs while they are lying face down on the ground with their hands handcuffed behind their backs.

The human rights group said in a statement on Saturday: “The leak of these photos and videos is a deliberate act of the current settler government led by the fascist minister [of National Security Ben-Gvir]to boast about the torture of prisoners.”

It said the practice was “part of the competition between ministers in the current government over who tortures and kills more Palestinians.”

“The other objective,” it says, “is to influence the image of Palestinian prisoners in the collective consciousness … in addition to using them as an additional tool for intimidation operations and the spread of terror among Palestinian citizens…”

The human rights group also called on the United Nations to launch an independent investigation into the torture of Palestinian prisoners in the regime’s prisons.

The rights group said the leaked footage represents only a small part of the systematic torture Palestinian prisoners are subjected to in various Israeli prisons and detention camps.

Hamas had previously called on the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to document Israel’s brutal torture and humiliation of Palestinians. Hamas said this showed “the hatred and sadism of the prison guards towards the Palestinians”.

According to the Gaza Media Office, Israeli forces have abducted at least 5,000 Palestinians since the regime’s genocidal war against the people of the Gaza Strip began in October 2023.

The fate of many of them or the conditions of their detention are still unknown, the media office said.

Human rights groups have repeatedly raised the alarm about the “unprecedentedly harsh conditions” in which all Palestinian prisoners, including women, are held. There are currently around 80 female prisoners being held in the regime’s prisons.