Palestinian captive recounts ordeal at 'Guantanamo-like' Israeli prisons

A recently freed Palestinian captive has recounted his ordeal in various Israeli jails, especially the notorious Negev Prison, which he compared to the US-run Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib prisons, respectively in Cuba and Iraq.

In a Saturday report, the London-based Middle East Monitor cited 37-year-old Louay al-Taweel as describing his nearly 10-year-long incarceration at Israeli prisons.

Al-Taweel said Israeli prisons have turned into exact copies of the infamous American jails as far as "torture, humiliation, and deprivation of food and medicine" are concerned.

"The situation in the prisons is hazardous and the lives of the detainees are literally hell. Captives are treated as a criminal and a Daesh member. There are no laws and there is a complete absence of human rights organizations," he said.

The former inmate mentioned the Israeli regime's Negev Prison as the worst of those facilities, where captives were deprived of even "seeing the sun or getting fresh air."

Al-Taweel was last time arrested in October under the occupying regime's so-called administrative detention policy that allows Israel to incarcerate Palestinians indefinitely without pressing charges or putting them on trial.

"We were held in challenging conditions, as inmates were always exposed to torture of all kinds, including physical and psychological torture and were deprived of food and insulted," he said.

"After a few days of detention, I was transferred to the Negev Prison. It was extremely shocking, as captives are met with a trained rapid response known as Keter. Inmates are stripped naked in a very humiliating manner and are subjected to severe beatings amidst insults and abuses," he added.

According to al-Taweel, the injured do not receive any treatment and the prison doctor does not provide them with any care, "leaving the disease to fate."

He added that many captives are ill, especially the elderly, due to medical neglect and daily abuse.

“Any form of worship is prohibited, reading the Quran is prohibited, congregational prayer and raising the call to prayer is prohibited,” al-Taweel noted.

There are reportedly more than 7,000 Palestinians held in Israeli jails. Hundreds of them have been incarcerated under the regime's "administrative detention" policy, which has caused some captives to be held without a charge for up to 11 years.

On Tuesday, Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz said the captives languishing at Israeli jails had reported being beaten by troops and threatened with violence if they refused to kiss the Israeli regime's flag.

ME