Palestinian prisoners in Syria and their families have been deprived of the joy of Eid in the war-torn country, where thousands of civilians have been killed and thousands more have fallen prey to enforced disappearance.

The daughter of elderly Palestinian woman Shamsa Rashdan said she has not met her mother and sister who have been kept in jail since April 23, 2013.

Over 1,700 Palestinian refugees, including 42 minors and six infants below the age of 6, have been held behind Syria’s prison bars.

“We have not celebrated Eid for years. We miss our father so much”, wrote a prisoner’s son on his Facebook account.

Affidavits by ex-detainees provided evidence on the involvement of Syrian government officers in harsh torture tactics, including electric shocks, heavy beating using whips and iron sticks, and sexual abuse against Palestinian detainees, in a flagrant violation of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, commonly known as the United Nations Convention against Torture (UNCAT).

Human rights groups continue to urge the Syrian government to disclose the fate of scores of Palestinians held in its lock-ups, release the bodies of those tortured to death, to seriously work on halting harsh torture tactics, launch fact-finding probes into crimes of torture, and to bring those involved in such crimes before courts.