Hamas says crimes against Palestinian prisoners among issues behind military operation against Israel

“The issue of Palestinian prisoners is one of the burning issues of the Hamas movement and the Palestinian nation. We cannot accept their continued suffering, and the Israeli aggression against them,” Osama Hamdan, the Palestinian resistance movement’s representative in Lebanon, told a news conference in Beirut on Tuesday.

Hamdan stressed that “one of the main causes of all uprisings and revolts against the Zionist enemy is the occupying regime’s horrifying crimes and systematic violations against both male and female Palestinian prisoners in its detention centers.”

He stressed that the issue of Palestinian prisoners was among the core issues of the Operation Al-Aqsa Storm.

The senior Hamas official also condemned the upsurge in the mistreatment of Palestinian hostages from the Gaza Strip, as well as abductees from the occupied West Bank and al-Quds – all of which he said is being exercised by the incumbent neo-Nazi and extremist Israeli administration.

Hamdan went on to highlight the enforced disappearance of Palestinians, and the systematic suppression of information concerning the real situation of abductees from the Gaza Strip in Israeli prisons and detention facilities since the start of the Israeli genocidal war against the Gaza Strip on October 7.

“What is being overlooked is the tragedy and suffering of Palestinian prisoners and detainees, which has been ongoing for the past 76 years and has intensified since October 7, 2023,” Hamdan added.

“This comes in light of the US administration and certain Western countries’ broad support for Israeli captives being held by Gaza-based resistance groups.”

He further noted that the Tel Aviv regime is abducting people from the Gaza Strip, executing them in the open air, torturing them both physically and psychologically, denying them access to food and medicine, and violating their most basic human rights.

The high-ranking Hamas official also pointed out that the number of Palestinian prisoners who lost their lives behind Israeli bars has soared dramatically.

“Since October 7, a total of 18 prisoners from the West Bank and occupied al-Quds have died in Israeli prisons. The number for prisoners from the Gaza Strip stands at 37,” he continued.

“Ever since Israel waged its deadly military offensive on Gaza, Zionist violations have registered an unprecedented increase and some 9,500 Palestinians have been detained. These individuals endure abhorrent conditions such as starvation, abuse, fracture of bones and damage to body organs. Several of them have died as a result of torture, deliberate medical negligence, or deprivation of food and medicine,” Hamdan stated.

Israel waged the atrocious onslaught against the Gaza Strip, targeting hospitals, residences, and houses of worship after Palestinian resistance movements launched a surprise attack, dubbed Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, against the usurping regime on October 7.

At least 36,550 Palestinians have been killed, most of them women and children, and another 82,900 have sustained injuries. More than 1.7 million people have been internally displaced during the war as well.