As an organisation holding special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council, the Palestinian Return Centre (PRC) submitted a detailed human rights briefing to UN member state missions in Geneva, revealing a disturbing escalation in the scale and severity of violations committed by Israeli occupation authorities against Palestinian detainees, particularly those from the Gaza Strip, since the beginning of the Israeli assault on 7 October 2023.

The briefing is based on a documented testimony by Khaled Mahajneh, a lawyer affiliated with the Palestinian Authority’s Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs. The testimony outlines Israel’s use of systematic torture methods against Palestinian detainees, including severe beatings, deliberate starvation, prolonged suspension in painful positions, medical neglect leading to death, attacks with dogs, and the amputation of limbs without anesthesia. These accounts have been corroborated by international human rights organisations such as Physicians for Human Rights–Israel and B’Tselem.

Among the most serious findings is the documented case of rape committed by an Israeli prison guard against a Palestinian detainee inside a detention facility. This constitutes a grave breach of Article 27 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits outrages upon personal dignity, including sexual violence. The incident further qualifies as a war crime under Article 8(2)(b)(xxii) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

PRC emphasised that the majority of Gaza detainees are held in undisclosed military sites, such as the Anatot and Sde Teiman camps, without access to legal counsel or visits by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Such practices amount to enforced disappearance as defined by the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance and expose detainees to a heightened risk of torture and abuse outside the reach of legal oversight.

The briefing further notes that Israeli authorities employ politically motivated and discriminatory classifications, labeling Gaza detainees as “unlawful combatants” or “terrorists,” thereby denying them the protections afforded under international humanitarian law to prisoners of war or protected persons. This practice constitutes a direct violation of the principle of equality before the law under Article 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and contradicts the core provisions of the Geneva Conventions.

In light of these findings, PRC has called for the urgent establishment of an independent international investigation into the documented abuses, particularly the use of torture and sexual violence, in line with Human Rights Council resolutions, including Resolution 31/31 on accountability and remedy. The Centre also urged the ICRC to fulfill its full mandate by gaining immediate and unrestricted access to all places of detention, including undisclosed military facilities, as required under Article 126 of the Third Geneva Convention.

PRC further called for the inclusion of these crimes in existing case files before the International Criminal Court, identifying them as part of a broader policy of systematic abuse that may constitute crimes against humanity and war crimes. The Centre also appealed to the international community to apply sustained pressure on Israel to comply with minimum international standards for the treatment of prisoners, including the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules).

In its concluding remarks, PRC stressed that the protection of Palestinian detainees is not merely a humanitarian concern, but a critical test of the credibility of international law and the global justice system. It warned that continued silence or token condemnation amounts to political complicity in ongoing crimes and undermines the UN’s role as a guarantor of human rights during times of war and occupation.