“The torture was very severe in [the] Israeli prison. I am a doctor. My weight was 87 kilograms. I lost, in 45 days, more than 25 kilograms. I lost my balance. I lost focus. I lost all feeling”
Palestinian paediatrician, Dr Saif Abdulrahman Maarouf, detained and tortured by Israel over seven weeks.
By Neil Sammonds, War on Want
Around 54 Palestinians have died after being tortured by Israel since October 2023.
Israel has been systematically torturing and ill-treating Palestinians – and getting away with it – for decades. Since the start of Israel’s occupation in 1967 up to 2013, at least 73 Palestinian prisoners died from torture at the hands of Israel’s interrogators – with thousands more suffering lasting physical and psychological damage.
And now, Israel is dramatically escalating its use of torture against the Palestinian people. The UK has said nothing about this torture – a war crime under international law. Will you push the UK government to take action?
No one is being spared from this treatment – Palestinian children and the elderly, doctors working in Gaza’s hospitals, and the sick and injured have all been tortured and killed by Israel.
“The torture was very severe in [the] Israeli prison. I am a doctor. My weight was 87 kilograms. I lost, in 45 days, more than 25 kilograms. I lost my balance. I lost focus. I lost all feeling” – Palestinian paediatrician, Dr Saif Abdulrahman Maarouf, detained and tortured by Israel over seven weeks.
Elsewhere, perpetrators of torture have been held to account and sanctioned. Both the US and the UK sanctioned Syria for abuse in its prisons, and yet, Israel’s influential allies continue to do business with it as usual.
The UK government must demand an end to Israel’s torture of Palestinians, ensure that Palestinian prisoners have access to support from lawyers, doctors and their families, and use UK influence to hold Israel to account.
Make sure the government doesn’t let Israel’s torture of Palestinians go unpunished.
- You can use War on Want’s lobby tool to ask your MP to condemn the torture of Palestinian detainees and hold Israel to account.
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- This article is an adapted version of the War on Want newsletter sent on 30th July, 2024.
