Palestinian Minister of Women’s Affairs: Palestinian women face harshest forms of torture and violence in Israeli detention centers

Palestinian Minister of Women’s Affairs, Mona Al-Khalili, confirmed that the Palestinian women and girls face the harshest forms of torture and violence in Israeli detention centers.

Wafa Agency quoted Al-Khalili in a statement on the occasion of the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture: “From the beginning of the war of genocide on Gaza Strip until this moment, women and girls are paying the heaviest price, as the percentage of martyrs among women and children reaches 70 percent of the death toll. The occupation did not differentiate between men, women, children and the elderly in this aggression. Rather, it disregards all international agreements and treaties and carries out genocide that wiped out entire families.”

The Minister added: The torture and brutal treatment committed by the occupation forces and its various agencies against the Palestinians is considered crimes under international law, and a flagrant violation of the Convention against Torture.

Al-Khalili stressed that the systematic torture, violence and sexual harassment against male and female prisoners is a blatant violation of the rights of prisoners guaranteed by the Geneva Conventions, which requires international intervention to stop Israeli crimes against Palestinians, and requires activating the tools and mechanisms of accountability and punishment of the occupying entity with its various agencies and authorities.

She referred to the reports of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, which confirmed the occurrence  of cases of sexual violence, torture and inhuman treatment against female Palestinian prisoners in the occupation prisons, and monitored cruel violations, sexual assault, brutal beatings, the stripping of women and girls of their clothes,  searching them completely naked by the occupation soldiers and photographing them in humiliating situations.

The Minister called on the international community and the United Nations to assume their full responsibilities regarding Israeli violations against Palestinian prisoners, and not to allow perpetrators of torture to escape from their crimes, and the need to prosecute them.

Inas Abdulkareem