Israel’s Forces Arrested, Stripped And Beat Dozens Of Palestinian Civilian Men In Gaza Before Abducting Them
Witnesses told rights groups that the men included children as young as 13, journalists and UN workers.
Israeli forces have mass arrested, stripped and severely beat dozens of Palestinian civilian men in northern Gaza, before abducting them to an unknown location.
Video footage surfaced on social media on Thursday Dec. 7 showing rows of Palestinian men stripped down to their underwear, with their hands tied behind their backs, sitting on the ground, while being guarded by Israeli troops.
The video has been verified by rights groups and several media outlets including the BBC and confirmed by the Israeli army.
The men – which witnesses said included children as young as 13, journalists and UN workers – were taken from two UN-run schools that were serving as shelters in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, according to rights group Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor.
Euro-Med Monitor said they also included doctors, academics and elderly men.
Diaa al-Kahlout, a journalist working for the Al-Araby Al-Jadeed news outlet, known in English as the New Arab, was identified as one of the men who was taken.
Al-Kahlout’s sister told Euro-Med Monitor that her brother was forced to leave behind his seven-year-old daughter, who is disabled, and taken into custody at gunpoint.
Al-Araby Al-Jadeed said that he had been taken an unknown location, according to Al Jazeera.
Euro-Med Monitor also said it had documented incidents where the Israeli army and snipers directly killed displaced people near the two schools.
It said that the army targeted everyone who tried to leave, even if they were holding white flags.
A young man Mohammed Al-Rai told Euro-Med Monitor that he saw at least seven other young men shot and killed by the Israeli forces because they refused to undress and comply with the army’s humiliating orders.
Another video showed the men being transported away in military trucks, while another photo showed them kneeling with their hands tied in an open sandy area.
Some Israeli media said that the men are “possible” Hamas fighters but did not give further details, according to Middle East Eye.
When asked by the BBC about the videos, the Israeli government said that all the men were “of military age and had been discovered in areas that civilians were supposed to have evacuated weeks ago”.
Daniel Hagari, the spokesperson for the Israeli army, did not comment on the images directly but said that the army had detained and interrogated “hundreds of terror suspects” in northern Gaza.
The videos and photos have prompted mass outrage, with rights groups calling for urgent investigations into the Israeli army’s violations against civilians.
Al-Araby Al-Jadeed called on the international community to “denounce this ongoing assault committed by the Israeli occupation army against journalists since [October 7] and exert efforts to ensure they are released from detention and protected”.
