Number of Israelis taken prisoners many times more than Israel’s claim: Hamas

News Network

October 8, 2023

Palestinian Hamas resistance movement says the number of Israelis taken captive in the ongoing operation against the regime is far more than "dozens" that was claimed by Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Abu Ubaida, the spokesman for the Gaza Strip-based movement's military wing, al-Qassam Brigades, provided the information in a recorded message aired shortly after midnight on Sunday.

"Today, you talked about dozens of prisoners and we reassure you, Netanyahu, that your prisoners are many times more than this number, and you must keep track of your soldiers well," he said.

"These prisoners are present in all areas [of Gaza], and everything that happens to our people in the Gaza Strip is happening to them," the spokesman added.

The movement's fighters have captured a great number of Israeli forces and settlers since early Saturday, when they launched Operation al-Aqsa Storm, the biggest to be carried out by Palestinian resistance groups against the occupying regime in years.

It has featured heavy rocket barrages and surprise attacks by resistance fighters against Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied territories. So far, around 300 Israelis have died as a result of the operation and thousands of others have been injured, hundreds of them critically.

Resistance leaders have described the operation as a decisive answer to the Israeli regime's unabated campaign of bloodshed and destruction against Palestinians.

'Threatening Gaza, a losing game'

Elsewhere in his remarks, Abu Ubaida also reacted to remarks by Netanyahu in which he alleged that Israel "is about to use all its force" to destroy military capabilities of both Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements.

Emphasizing that Netanyahu's speech indicated a deep crisis for the Israeli entity, the spokesman said, "Threatening Gaza is a losing game."

Addressing Netanyahu, he added, "You threaten us with any army, Netanyahu, with your soldiers who fled like locusts in front of the Qassam fighters in their hundreds, leaving everything behind."

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UN condemns Israeli regime’s ‘organized torture’ against Palestinians

News Network

November 30,2025

The United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT) has condemned the Israeli regime for enforcing a policy of “organized torture” against Palestinians.

In a report published on Friday, CAT stated that the occupying regime enforces a deliberate policy of “organized and widespread torture and ill-treatment” against Palestinian abductees, particularly since October 7, 2023, when Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza.

The committee expressed “deep concern over repeated severe beatings, dog attacks, electrocution, water-boarding, use of prolonged stress positions [and] sexual violence” inflicted on Palestinians.

Palestinian prisoners were degraded by “being made to act like animals or being urinated on,” systematically denied medical care, and subjected to excessive restraints, “in some cases resulting in amputation,” the report added.

CAT also condemned the routine application of “unlawful combatants law” to justify the prolonged detention without trial of thousands of Palestinian men, women, and children.

More than 10,000 Palestinians, including women and children, are currently held in Israeli prisons, according to Palestinian and international human rights groups, with 3,474 Palestinians in “administrative detention,” meaning they are imprisoned without trial for indefinite periods.

The report highlighted the “high proportion of children who are currently detained without charge or on remand,” noting that while Israel sets the age of criminal responsibility at 12, even younger children have been abducted.

Children designated as security prisoners face severe restrictions on family contact, may be subjected to solitary confinement, and are denied access to education, in clear violation of international law.

The committee further suggested that Israel’s policies across the Occupied Territories constitute collective torture against the Palestinian population.

“A range of policies adopted by Israel in the course of its continued unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory amounts to cruel, inhuman or degrading living conditions for the Palestinian population,” the report said.

On Thursday, the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas condemned the systematic killing and torture of Palestinian abductees in Israeli prisons, urging international action to halt these abuses.

Citing human rights data, Hamas stated that 94 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli prisons since the start of Tel Aviv’s genocidal war on Gaza.

“This reflects an organized criminal approach that has turned these prisons into direct killing grounds to eliminate our people,” the resistance movement said.

Hamas called on the international community, the UN, and human rights organizations to immediately pressure Israel to end crimes against prisoners and uphold their rights as guaranteed by all international conventions and norms.

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