The Palestinian Authority on Wednesday announced its commitment to guarantee the release of the thousands of Palestinian Arabs held in Israeli prisons, including "a large number of women and minors who were kidnapped in the Gaza Strip during the past six months."
In a statement published on the occasion of Prisoner's Day, the PA’s foreign affairs bureau called for an investigation into Israel, described as “the occupying authority”, over what was described as its “policy of torture aimed at Palestinian detainees, including sexual violence, and the rape of men, women and minors.”
The PA bureau claimed that "the Israeli occupation has for decades adopted a policy of arrest, kidnapping and torture, and this policy has harmed more than a million Palestinians, and the occupation also continues to implement its inhumane policy of holding Palestinian bodies after they have been killed or tortured to death by the Israeli occupation soldiers."
The official PA news agency Wafa reported that "the State of Palestine emphasizes that it will continue its legal, political and diplomatic activities to protect the just cause of the Palestinian prisoners and detainees and their legitimate right to freedom, and to put an end to the occupation that will guarantee the Palestinian people their inalienable rights, first of all the right of self-determination."
The PA’s claims of Israelis using sexual violence against detainees have been unproven. UN experts have accused IDF soldiers of raping Palestinian Arab women and girls in detention but have not provided evidence to back those claims.
On the other hand, sexual crimes committed by Hamas during its October 7 attack on Israel were confirmed in a recent report released by UN Special Rapporteur Pramila Patten. The PA has yet to condemn the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7.