The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor expressed shock Thursday over the physical and psychological conditions of Palestinian prisoners recently freed as part of a prisoner exchange deal between Hamas and Israel.
“Israel’s release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exceptionally poor health highlights its continued use of torture to terrorize, persecute, and break the spirit of detainees until the very end of their detention,” the Geneva-based nonprofit said in a statement.
“The repeated release of such visibly debilitated individuals from Israeli prisons reveals an alarming escalation in the levels of torture and deliberate medical neglect they endure,” it added.
Euro-Med Monitor noted that while many detainees were not charged with specific crimes, numerous individuals reported being beaten, mistreated and threatened up until the moment of their release.
It stressed that Israel "must immediately cease its crime of enforced disappearance against Palestinian prisoners and detainees from the Gaza Strip; reveal all secret detention camps; (and) reveal the names, whereabouts and fates of all Palestinians it is holding from the Strip."
Israel released 642 Palestinian prisoners Thursday after Hamas handed over the bodies of four Israeli captives under the Gaza cease-fire and prisoner exchange deal.
The agreement has been in place since last month, pausing Israel’s destructive war on Gaza, which has killed more than 48,360 people, mostly women and children, and left the enclave in ruins.
So far, 25 Israeli captives and eight bodies have been returned from Gaza in exchange for more than 1,100 Palestinian prisoners under the first phase of the Gaza deal.
Israel estimates that 59 hostages are still being held in Gaza, with at least 20 of them alive, and they are expected to be set free in the second phase of the cease-fire, which would require Israel to fully withdraw its forces from Gaza and end the war permanently.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
