News - Middle East: A human rights group has condemned the “rape” of a Palestinian detainee by Israeli soldiers in a regime’s jail, calling on the United Nations to launch a thorough investigation into the appalling case and Israel’s “systematic torture” against Palestinian prisoners.

In a statement, the Palestinian Prisoners Club (PPC) called on the UN to “conduct an impartial international investigation, through its specialized organizations, into the systematic torture operations against Palestinian prisoners and detainees.”

The call came just a day after Israeli Channel 12 aired leaked video footage from surveillance cameras of Sde Teiman detention camp, an Israeli military base located in the Negev desert near the border with the besieged Gaza Strip, showed a group of Israeli soldiers sexually assaulting a Palestinian detainee.

The inmate, who was taken to a corner and sexually assaulted, was picked out of more than 30 others, who were all forced to lie on the ground blindfolded.

    “International investigative bodies should demand the occupation to provide the recordings of the cameras present in the prisons and camps, which today constitute a central part of their structure, and which will certainly reveal more horrific crimes documented by evidence alongside the testimonies that institutions seek to follow up on as an aspect of the ongoing extermination,” PPC said in its statement.

The group stressed that the leaked footage of the Gazan inmate along with dozens of testimonies documented by specialized institutions are enough to condemn and hold the occupying entity accountable.

    “This crime is one among many rape crimes committed by occupation soldiers against Gaza detainees, specifically in the Sde Teiman camp, which has been the most prominent witness to the torture crimes against Palestinian detainees in occupation prisons and camps, based on the testimonies of prisoners released from occupation camps as well as recent limited visits by several institutions,” PPC stressed.

The Palestinian rights group also said that the Gazan detainee, who was subject to “the crime of rape”, has not yet been identified and that his health status is still unknown.

“The rape crime documented by cameras confirms that there is more photographic evidence held by the occupation regarding all the crimes committed against detainees in the camp and in other prisons,” PPC emphasized.

The statement came just a day after leading Israeli human rights group B'Tselem said in a disturbing report that testimonies from 55 former Palestinian detainees revealed “inhuman conditions,” and that more than a dozen Israeli prison facilities were being used as “de facto torture camps.”

The Israeli military is believed to have detained thousands of Palestinians, including women, children and medics, ever since it started its devastating ground and aerial offensives against Gaza on October 7. Those released have shown signs of torture.

Palestinian detainees have continuously resorted to open-ended hunger strikes in an attempt to express outrage at their illegal detention.

Israel keeps Palestinian inmates under deplorable conditions without proper hygienic standards. Palestinian inmates have also been subject to systematic torture, harassment, and repression.

Source: Press TV