CAIRO/JERUSALEM/RAMALLAH: Once muscular and strong, Palestinian bodybuilder Moazaz Obaiyat’s nine-month spell in Zionist entity custody left him unable to walk unaided upon his release in July. Then, in an October pre-dawn raid on his home, soldiers detained him again. Before being re-arrested, the 37-year-old father of five was diagnosed with severe PTSD by Bethlehem Psychiatric Hospital, related to his time at Zionist entity’s remote Ktz’iot prison, according to medical notes seen by Reuters from the hospital, a public clinic in the occupied West Bank.

The notes said Obaiyat was subjected to “physical and psychological violence and torture” in prison and described symptoms including severe anxiety, withdrawal from his family and avoidance of discussion of traumatic events and current affairs. Alleged abuses and psychological harm to Palestinian detainees in Zionist entity prisons and camps are in renewed focus amid stepped-up efforts in December by international mediators to secure a ceasefire that could see the release of thousands of inmates detained during the Gaza war and before, in return for Zionist entity hostages held by the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza.

In the event of the release of detainees in any future deal, many “will require long-term medical care to recover from the physical and psychological abuse they have endured,” said Qadoura Fares, head of the Palestinian Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, a government body in the West Bank. Fares said he was aware of Obaiyat’s case.

Reuters spoke to four Palestinian men detained by Zionist entity since the war’s outbreak after the Hamas attacks of Oct 7, 2023. All were held for months, accused of affiliating with an illegal organization, and released without being formally charged or convicted of any crime.

All described lasting psychological scars they attributed to abuses including beatings, sleep and food deprivation and prolonged restraint in stress positions during their time inside. Reuters could not independently verify the conditions in which they were held. Their accounts are consistent with multiple investigations by human rights groups that reported grave abuses of Palestinians in Zionist entity detention. An investigation published by the United Nations human rights office in August described substantiated reports of widespread “torture, sexual assault and rape, amid atrocious inhumane conditions” in prisons since the war began.

The White House has called the reports of torture, rape and abuse in Zionist entity’s prisons “deeply concerning.” In response to Reuters questions, the Zionist entity military said it was investigating several cases of alleged abuse of Gazan detainees by military personnel but “categorically” rejected allegations of systematic abuse within its detention facilities.

The military declined to comment on individual cases. The Zionist entity Prison Service (IPS), which falls under hard-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, and the country’s internal security service said they were not in a position to comment on individual cases.

Obaiyat is currently being held in a small detention centre in Etzion, south of Bethlehem, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, an advocacy group. He is being held for six months under “administrative detention”, a form of incarceration without charge or trial, and the official reason for his arrest is unknown, the group said. Zionist entity’s military, internal security service and prison service did not respond to questions about his specific case.

PCATI said at least 56 Palestinians had died in custody during the war, compared to just one or two annually in the years preceding the conflict. Zionist entity’s military said it launches criminal investigations of all deaths of Palestinians in its custody. Palestinian prisoner numbers have at least doubled in Zionist entity and the West Bank to more than 10,000 during the war, PCATI estimates, based on court documents and data obtained through freedom of information requests.

Through the course of the war, around 6,000 Gazans have been incarcerated, the Zionist entity military said in response to a query from Reuters. Unlike Palestinians from the West Bank who are held under military law, Palestinians from Gaza are held in Zionist entity under its Unlawful Combatants Law.

The law has been used to hold people incommunicado, deny them their rights as prisoners of war or as prisoners under military occupation, and incarcerate them for extended periods without charge or trial, according to Professor Neve Gordon, an Zionist entity scholar who specializes in human rights and international law at London’s Queen Mary University.

Widespread abuses have also been reported at more established facilities, such as the Ktz’iot prison, also in the Negev, and Ofer military camp, south of Ramallah in the West Bank.

After collating evidence and testimony from 55 former Palestinian prisoners, Zionist entity rights group B’Tselem earlier this year released a report accusing Zionist entity of deliberately turning the prison system into a ‘network of torture camps’.

Human rights scholar Gordon likened what he said was the use of torture in Zionist entity’s prisons to terrorism.

“Terrorism usually is an act that’s limited in the number of people directly impacted, but the psychosocial effect is dramatic. It’s the same with torture,” said Gordon, who co-edited a book on abuses in the Zionist entity prison system. – Reuters