UN rights chief blasts Israel's 'totally unacceptable' treatment of Palestinian detainees

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk has censused "unacceptable" abuse and torture of Palestinian detainees by the Israeli forces amid the occupying regime’s months-long onslaught on the besieged Gaza Strip.

Turk said at a news conference in Geneva on Wednesday that Israel has had “totally unacceptable treatment” of Palestinian captives, which requires an investigation in particular since the regime launched its brutal war on Gaza in October last year.

Asked about a recent case where Israel's military acknowledged its troops had tied a wounded Palestinian to a military vehicle during a raid in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, the UN rights chief said it was "sickening to see such totally unacceptable treatment.”

"There must be a transparent and independent investigation to know what happened and to ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice," Turk added.

Turk's spokeswoman, Ravina Shamdasani, also urged the need for accountability in the case, warning that without it, "brazen violations like this will continue with impunity.”

"At some point you run out of words of condemnation to use for such incidents," Shamdasani underlined.

Shamdasani said the UN rights office had "been receiving very worrying, very distressing reports of how Palestinian detainees are being treated by Israeli forces since October 7.”

Those reports included torture, mistreatment, sexual abuse, and handcuffing and deprivation of food, water and medication in addition to the detainees being held incommunicado. 

"It's unacceptable and it needs to stop," she said.

Shamdasani said the rights office had raised this issue directly with the Israeli regime’s officials and demanded "a transparent investigation" but had yet to receive a formal response.

The United Nations has long raised concerns about conditions for Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons, but warned on Wednesday that the situation appeared to have worsened since the war began.

Israel launched its barbaric military campaign in the besieged Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023. The regime has since killed about 38,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children.

Israel’s genocidal war has placed vast swathes of Gaza in ruins, pushing 85 percent of the region's population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice.

Israel has killed over 8,570 Palestinian students since October: Education Ministry

The regime has also killed 100 pupils in the occupied West Bank ever since.

UN experts condemn Israeli military courts in West Bank

In a separate development on Wednesday, UN experts denounced the lack of a mechanism for fair trials in the occupied West Bank.

For 57 years, the experts said, judges in Israeli military courts have been providing legal cover for acts of torture against Palestinian detainees and the degrading treatment of Palestinian detainees “carried out by their colleagues in the armed forces and intelligence agencies.”

Not even children are spared this “abusive” system and it makes legal defense impossible, they added.

The experts described the establishment in 1967 of a system in the occupied territories in which the functions of the police, investigators, prosecutors and judges were all vested in the Israeli military, which was given broad powers to conduct legal proceedings.

“This military system has served to control many aspects of Palestinians’ daily lives, including public health, education, and land and property law,” the experts said.

“It also criminalizes many forms of political and cultural expression, association, movement, nonviolent protest, traffic offenses and other acts that might be considered methods for opposing the occupation and its policies.”

The UN experts stressed that to guarantee fair and public trials, international law stipulates that courts must be impartial and the judicial system independent of executive and military sectors.

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