The Al Mezan Center for Human Rights says 2,650 Palestinians taken out of Gaza since October remain in Israeli custody.
Palestinian detainees are suffering severe physical and psychological torture in Israeli facilities, the Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights said, calling for accountability for the abuses.
The prisoners “have been exposed naked to the scorching sun while standing on sharp gravel stones, subjected to verbal abuse and threatened with rape, death and bombing, along with threats against their families,” it said in a statement on Tuesday.
The rights group said recent testimony and evidence “reveals a level of violence that resonates with the atrocities documented at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib,” referring to the U.S.-run detention center in Cuba and the prison in Iraq where American soldiers abused detainees.
Al Mezan said detainees have also been “deprived of food, water, sleep and access to sanitation for prolonged periods, all while facing extremely harsh living conditions.”
The group estimates that at least 2,650 Palestinians taken out of the Gaza Strip after October 7 remain in Israeli custody, including 12 children and two women.
Among them, approximately 300 are facing trials, while 2,350 are classified as “unlawful combatants” with no defined detention period or specific charges.
Al Mezan said torture has caused several deaths, but there is no definitive record of the total number of Palestinians who have died in Israeli custody.
The Palestinian Prisoners' Club has revealed the full identities of 22 Palestinians who died as a result of torture or medical neglect.
“The attacks against Palestinian residents of Gaza appear to be part of a broader pattern of abuses, consistent with the crime of genocide,” according to Al Mezan.
The findings echo reports from the United Nations and other human rights groups that have denounced widespread abuse.
Footage recently broadcast by Israel's Channel 12 has shed light on sexual abuse inflicted on Palestinian detainees, prompting international condemnation and confirming numerous witness accounts.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights last month published a report detailing how Palestinians jailed since the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attacks on Israel that sparked the current conflict had faced torture and ill-treatment.
“Some detainees said dogs were unleashed on them, and others said they were waterboarded or had their hands tied and hung from the ceiling. Some women and men also spoke of sexual and gender-based violence,” the report said.
In a report titled Welcome to Hell, Israeli human rights group B'Tselem presented testimonies from 55 Palestinians, including 21 from the Gaza Strip, who had been held in Israeli jails.
The violations they reported included “frequent acts of serious and arbitrary violence; sexual assault; humiliation and degradation; deliberate starvation; enforced unhygienic conditions; sleep deprivation.”
B'Tselem said at least 60 Palestinians have died in Israeli custody since Oct. 7, including some 48 people from Gaza.
He called on the International Criminal Court to investigate “individuals suspected of planning, directing and committing these crimes,” saying that the investigation was not possible within Israel “since all state systems, including the judiciary, have been mobilized in support of these torture camps.”
