GENEVA: A UN human rights official accused Israel on Friday of mistreating Palestinian detainees in Gaza, saying he had met men who had described being held for weeks, beaten and blindfolded, with some released in diapers.
Ajith Sunghay, a UN human rights official in Gaza, told reporters it was not clear exactly how many men had been detained by Israel since it began its military operation in the Palestinian enclave in response to the deadly assault by Hamas on Oct. 7, but he said the number ran into the thousands.
“These are men who were detained by the Israeli security forces in unknown locations for between 30 to 55 days,” Sunghay told reporters in Geneva by video link from Gaza.
He said he had just met released detainees in the besieged enclave. “There are reports of men who are subsequently released, but only in diapers without any adequate clothing in this cold weather,” he added.
Israel’s military said it was detaining and questioning suspects involved in militant activity — without disclosing a number — as part of its operations in combat areas in Gaza.
Detainees were “treated in accordance with international law” and those found not to be involved in the fighting were released, the Israeli military’s Spokesperson’s Unit said.
It said suspects were required to hand over their clothes so that they can be searched “to ensure that they are not concealing explosive vests or other weaponry” and that detainees were given back their clothes when possible.”
Asked to elaborate on why some of the released detainees wore diapers, Sunghay said: “So we’re not exactly sure why they were put in diapers and sent out but they were clearly visibly shocked and even shaken when I met them.”
Israeli TV broadcast footage in December of Palestinian men stripped to their underwear in Gaza. The images that also circulated on social media drew condemnation from Palestinian, Arab and Muslim officials.
At the time, Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy said the images showed “military-age men who were discovered in areas that civilians were supposed to have evacuated weeks ago.”
UN rights official says Gaza detainees humiliated, dressed in diapers
https://arab.news/5hywc
UN rights official says Gaza detainees humiliated, dressed in diapers
- Ajith Sunghay, a UN human rights official in Gaza, told reporters it was not clear exactly how many men had been detained by Israel
- “There are reports of men who are subsequently released, but only in diapers without any adequate clothing”
Gazans mourn six killed in Israeli shelling on shelter
- In a statement on Saturday, Hamas denounced “a brutal crime committed against innocent civilians and a flagrant, recurring violation of the ceasefire agreement”
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Dozens of Palestinians gathered at a Gaza City hospital on Saturday to mourn six people, including children, that the civil defense said were killed by the Israeli shelling of a shelter for displaced people.
The Israeli military said late on Friday that troops had fired at “suspicious individuals to eliminate the threat,” adding that it was reviewing the incident and “regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals.”
Gaza’s civil defense agency, which operates as a rescue force under Hamas authority, initially said on Friday that the Israeli shelling of a school-turned-shelter killed five people in the Tuffah neighborhood east of Gaza City.
Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal updated the toll to six, including children, on Saturday, adding that two people were unaccounted for under the rubble.
The director of Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital, Mohammed Abu Salmiya, told AFP the victims were a four-month old infant, a 14-year-old girl, two men and two women.
Inside the hospital’s morgue on Saturday, relatives peered beneath blankets to get a last glimpse of their loved ones.
Outside, a grief-stricken man clutched an infant’s body wrapped in a white shroud, AFP footage showed.
Five other body bags were laid out on the ground as mourners prayed over the dead.
“This is not a truce, it is a bloodbath,” said Nafiz Al-Nader, who witnessed the attack.
“We want the bloodshed to stop and we don’t want to lose our loved ones every day,” he told AFP.
‘Flagrant, recurring violation’
In its statement on Friday, the Israeli military said: “During operational activity in the area of the Yellow line in the northern Gaza Strip, a number of suspicious individuals were identified in command structures west of the Yellow line.”
Under the US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, Israeli forces have withdrawn to positions east of the so-called Yellow Line.
“Shortly after identification, the troops fired at the suspicious individuals to eliminate the threat,” the military said, adding that it was “aware of the claim regarding casualties in the area, and the details are under review.”
Abdullah Al-Nader, who lost his relatives, told AFP that the shelling suddenly erupted in the evening.
“It was a safe area and a safe school and suddenly... they began firing shells without warning, targeting women, children and civilians,” he said.
In a statement on Saturday, Hamas denounced “a brutal crime committed against innocent civilians and a flagrant, recurring violation of the ceasefire agreement.”
The Palestinian Islamist movement urged the ceasefire mediators and US President Donald Trump’s administration “to assume their responsibilities regarding these violations and intervene immediately.”
The ceasefire remains fragile with both sides alleging violations, and mediators fearing that both Israel and Hamas are stalling.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Saturday that at least 401 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the territory since the ceasefire came into effect on October 10.
Israel has also repeatedly accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire, with the military reporting three soldiers killed in the territory since the truce entered into force.
