Israeli forces likely detained 1000s of Gazans during ongoing war: UN
Amid an ongoing genocidal war by the Israeli regime against the Gaza Strip, the United Nations says the regime’s forces likely detained thousands of Gazans during the onslaught, subjecting them to torture and humiliation.
Ajith Sunghay, the UN’s human rights representative in the Palestinian territories, made the remarks to a press briefing in Geneva on Friday, speaking via video-link from the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
“They described being beaten, humiliated, subjected to ill-treatment, and to what may amount to torture. They reported being blindfolded for long periods — some of them for several consecutive days,” he said.
Sunghay provided the information after talking to several released detainees, who said they had been held by Israeli forces at unknown locations for a period of 30 to 55 days.
“One man said he had access to a shower only once during his 55 days in detention. There are reports of men who were subsequently released, but only in diapers,” he added.
The people thus detained spent their detention without access to either their families, lawyers or effective judicial protection, the UN official noted.
Nearing 24,800 Palestinians, mostly women, children, and adolescents, have been killed so far in the Israeli military campaign that began on October 7 following an operation staged by Gaza’s resistance movements.
Dozens of Palestinian civilians, including women and children, have been killed and many others wounded in a fresh round of Israeli strikes against the Gaza Strip.
‘Horrific conditions’
The men Sunghay spoke to typically reported being taken to a place of detention in Gaza, blindfolded for hours and then taken, mostly unclothed, to another detention center likely within the occupied Palestinian territories.
“The detention conditions are horrific, overall,” he said.
After arriving at detention centers, the detainees would be profiled, categorized, and some interrogated, Sunghay noted.
They were not told of their impending release, but were blindfolded and dropped at the Kerem Shalom crossing point, without the clothes, possessions and cash they had on them when arrested, the official concluded.
