2024 was the deadliest year for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails!

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PALESTINIAN prisoners’ institutions have declared that 2024 has been the deadliest year in the history of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement.

In a press conference held on Tuesday, Palestinian Prisoners organisations highlighted the severe sufferings of Palestinian detainees held by the Israeli authorities.
Qaddura Fares, head of the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affaires, said that  Israel has been waging war on detainees and prisoners since the first day of the genocidal war waged against the Gaza Strip. It is a genocidal war that involves all of Israel’s political and military institutions.
Fares told the press: ‘We have warned that we would soon receive news of the martyrdom of detainees in groups after several had already died individually in recent months. We have now reached a critical point, and what lies ahead will be even more severe due to the continuing acts of torture.’
He stressed that investigations into the deaths of most detainees from the West Bank who underwent autopsy clearly showed that their deaths were caused by torture, deliberate medical neglect, or a combination of both.
But, he insisted, the abuse inflicted on detainees in Gaza is even more intense, brutal and violent.
Abdullah Al-Zaghari, head of the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) presented the statistics for 2024 which has been marked as the most deadliest, most devastating and tragic year for the Palestinian people and prisoners in Israeli detention centres.
He said a total of 54 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons while around 8,800 had been detained by the Zionist regime in 2024. 35 of those who died were being held in Gaza and their bodies were still being held by Israel.
Many other detainees, particularly from Gaza, remain unaccounted for and are feared to have been killed under ‘mysterious circumstances’.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel has detained at least 25,000 Palestinians with approximately 14,300 from the West Bank and Jerusalem and the rest from the Gaza Strip.
On Wednesday, the PPS and Commission released new testimonies from Gaza detainees held in the Naqab Prison, all of which confirm the use of torture as a weapon of war by the Israeli regime.
These testimonies also highlighted the ongoing health crisis within prisons, particularly the spread of scabies, which is being used as a form of torture.
The majority of detainees interviewed reported that their bodies were covered in sores and boils due to the scabies infection. Denied adequate medical treatment for the disease leaves Palestinian prisoners in constant agony.
In the latest round of genocidal warfare in Gaza, Israeli occupation forces last Friday stormed Kamal Adwan Hospital, the last remaining hospital in Gaza, setting it on fire and putting it completely out of service.
Over 350 people inside, including 180 medical staff and 75  injured patients, were detained and taken to an unknown destination.
Later, Israeli forces released about 400, but not the director of the hospital, Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, who is being held at a military base that doubles as a detention centre for interrogation by the Israeli military.
He is reported to being held at the Sde Teiman military base, notorious for brutality and torture.
So concerned is the international medical community over the safety of Dr Abu Safiya that the World Health Organisation chief, Tedros Ghebreyesus, demanded his immediate release.
There are 45,581 reported fatalities in Gaza, according to the latest figures. Torture and disease is used as a weapon of war with complete impunity in Israeli detention centres. These are all not just condoned but are actively supported by the US and its allies in the UK government.
This support allows the Zionist regime to ignore calls for a ceasefire, and to dismiss out of hand charges of genocide from the International Court of Justice.
With the working class in the UK, the EU and US overwhelmingly supporting Palestine, the time has come to take action.
This means demanding the trade union leaders stop just standing by and doing nothing, and forcing them to call general strikes to bring down the genocide-supporting governments and bring in Workers Governments that will recognise the state of Palestine and provide all the material support required for the victory of the Palestinian revolution.