Seven thousand Palestinians face torture in Israeli prisons

There are currently 7,000 Palestinian prisoners, including 400 children, at risk of being tortured in Israeli detention centers, according to a senior Palestinian official.

“The number of sick prisoners has now reached nearly 1,500,” Minister of Prisoners’ Affairs Issa Qaraqi said.

Qaraqi said scores of Palestinian prisoners are likely to die because Israeli guards deliberately refuse to give them medicine, adding, “Israeli prisons have turned into their graves.”

In a meeting with members of the press, Qaraqi revealed that 400 Palestinian children are among the 7,000 currently in detention in Israeli jails.

Accompanied by freed Palestinian prisoners on a visit to Morocco, Qaraqi shared the struggles of the detainees and shed light on the aims of Israeli occupation forces.

Progress and Socialism Party member Ismail al-Alewi stressed the need to provide support on every level to the file of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons.

Israeli authorities, in coordination with International Red Cross Committee, allows only a limited number of Palestinian families to visit relatives in Israeli prisons.

The Israeli parliament ordered additional security measures for Knesset member Oren Hazan who hurled racist insults at the families of Palestinians in Israeli prisons.

A recent video emerged showing Hazan boarding a bus that was carrying Palestinian families visiting their imprisoned relatives, and verbally abusing them.

Accompanied by cameras, Hazan, a deputy of Netanyahu’s ruling Likud Party, raided a bus carrying Palestinian families on their way to visit their imprisoned relatives, and verbally harassed them. The video shows Hazan yelling at a prisoner’s mother saying that her son is a “dog” and an “insect.” The woman responded to him saying, “My son is the best of men. A dog is whoever calls him a dog.” Stumped by her courage, Hazan threatened the woman to prevent her from visiting her son, and said: “If you continue like this here, you will not see them alive."

Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman called for the execution of detained Palestinian Omar al-Abd who killed three Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank.

Al-Abed attacked and killed Jewish settlers in the illegal West Bank settlement of Neve Tsuf (Halameesh), and a court is set to announce its verdict, which Liberman stressed must be the death penalty, in a tweet posted on his official account that read “The only acceptable punishment for this crime is death. I call on the judges to issue the death penalty. Jewish blood is not cheap. There’s no place for terrorists in jail.”

The Israeli government prepares to vote on the draft bill allowing the death penalty to detained Palestinians on Wednesday, as it failed to silence Palestinians that took to the streets after Trump’s decision on Jerusalem.

“The U.S. also has such a legislation. Thus, it’s appropriate for Israel to follow such a powerful democratic system in the world,” Liberman said.

The draft bill should be voted on in three rounds in parliament in order to be put into force. Israeli forces using disproportionate force have detained hundreds of Palestinians protesting Trump’s decision on Jerusalem.

On Dec. 6, Trump announced his decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, sparking angry demonstrations in many Muslim countries and worldwide condemnation.

Jerusalem remains at the heart of the Israel-Palestine conflict, with Palestinians hoping that East Jerusalem -- now occupied by Israel -- might eventually serve as the capital of a future Palestinian state.