Foreign Ministry calls for an international investigation into crimes against detainees

 The Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Ministry Monday called for an international investigation into Israeli crimes against Palestinians in Israeli custody.

The Ministry stated in a press release that it views with grave concern the increase in the number of Palestinian prisoners and detainees, particularly from the Gaza Strip, who have died in Israeli custody, especially that 59 detainees have died so far due to systematic torture in Israeli imprisonment since the onset of the Israeli aggression, including at least 38 detainees from the Gaza Strip, noting that this number only reflects the detainees who were identified.

It said that such deaths occurred due to the torture and ill-treatment of prisoners, including thousands of detainees whose places of detention and fates have not been disclosed by the occupation authorities.

It called on international humanitarian and human rights organizations to swiftly intervene to protect Palestinian detainees and oblige the occupation authorities to fulfill their responsibilities toward detainees while stressing the need to enable the United Nations Commission of Inquiry to assume its tasks and investigate these extrajudicial killings, committed against Palestinian detainees in a gross violation of the Geneva Conventions.