Israeli prisoner video masks the reality of the situation in Gaza

Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, has released several videos of their Israeli prisoners in Gaza. It blames the dire situation they face on Israel, saying:

The occupation government has decided to starve them… They eat what we eat. They drink what we drink.

Israeli prisoner Evyatar David

A video screenshot- titled ‘Coming up’ – has also been published, along with another video, with the message: ‘Time is running out’. These show 24 year old Israeli Evyatar David, one of Al-Qassam’s prisoners, looking frail and emaciated and apparently digging his own grave:

In a statement released on Sunday 3 August, Al-Qassam’s spokesperson Abu Ubaidah said that what happens to the Israeli prisoners is dependent on the actions taken by the occupation:

The Al-Qassam Brigades are prepared to deal positively, and cooperate with any request from the Red Cross to provide food and medicines to enemy prisoners. We stipulate, for accepting this, that humanitarian corridors be opened naturally and permanently to allow the passage of food and medicine to all our people, in all areas of the Gaza Strip, and that the enemies air sorties, in all their forms, be halted during the times of receiving packages for the prisoners.

The Al-Qassam Brigades do not deliberately starve the prisoners, however, they eat what our fighters and the general population of our people eat, and they will not receive special privileges amidst the crime of starvation and siege.

10,800 Palestinian detainees suffering in Israeli jails

David is among 49 prisoners still being held in Gaza since October 7 2023, 27 of whom the Israeli military says are dead. At the same time, it is worth remembering that 10,800 Palestinians are currently being detained in Israeli prisons- the highest number since the Second Intifada in 2000.

Thousands are held without charge or trial and Israel’s recent legislative changes mean Palestinian children as young as 12 can be sentenced to life imprisonment. Torture is commonplace and, according to the Commission of Detainees Affairs and Palestinian Prisoner’s Society, 76 Palestinians have died in Israeli jails between 7 October 2023, and 3 August this year. 46 of these detainees were abducted from Gaza.

A total blockade of humanitarian aid getting into the Strip has been in place since 2 March.

Although the occupation has now started to allow a small number of flour trucks into the Strip, this is only for show, to quieten the growing outcry across the world. Before the start of this genocide, at least 500 humanitarian aid trucks were entering Gaza daily. Now it is 100 at the most- on Saturday it was only 36. This is a drop in the ocean, for the intentionally starved and malnourished population of Gaza who, according to the UN, are now in the midst of the worst-case scenario of famine, which is unfolding in Gaza.

More than 1,400 Palestinian aid seekers killed since 27 May

On 1 August, the UN reported that since 27 May, at least 1,373 Palestinians have been killed – 859 in the vicinity of the GHF aid distribution sites run by Israeli military and US mercenaries, and described as ‘death traps’ by the UN – and 514 along the routes of food convoys. This figure does not include the 56 aid seekers killed by Israeli forces on Sunday 3 August, as desperate civilians attempted to reach critically needed supplies.

Featured image via the Canary