Settlers attended IOF 'nude torture' of detained Gazans: Euro-med
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Israeli occupation soldiers purposefully presented the detainees before the settlers, falsely claiming they were affiliated with Palestinian Resistance factions.
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Israeli occupation soldiers detain blindfolded Palestinian men in a military truck while watching Palestinians (not pictured) fleeing the fighting in Gaza walk by on a road in the al-Zaytun district of the southern part of the Gaza Strip on November 19, 2023. (Photo by MAHMUD HAMS / AFP)
The Israeli occupation military allowed groups of Israeli settlers access to detention centers and prisons where Palestinian detainees from the Gaza Strip were held, the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor reported on Tuesday citing disturbing testimonies from recently released Palestinians.
According to the report, Israeli settlers were permitted to witness acts of torture against the detainees, and many were even allowed to record these incidents on their phones.
The released Palestinians mentioned that during their interrogation sessions, the Israeli occupation forces allowed settlers to observe the torture and inhumane treatment deliberately inflicted on them.
Israeli soldiers purposefully presented the detainees before the settlers, falsely claiming they were affiliated with Palestinian Resistance factions who took part in Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7, the released detainees revealed.
Groups of 10 to 20 Israeli settlers at a time were reportedly allowed to watch and film Palestinian detainees in their underwear. In addition to verbal abuse, Israeli occupation soldiers subjected the Palestinian detainees to physical abuse, including beating them with metal batons and electric sticks as well as pouring hot water on their heads.
A 42-year-old released detainee informed Euro-Med Monitor that Israeli settlers "sometimes brought their dogs with them to bark on us. They also took pictures of us and post them on social media apps, particularly "TikTok," with the soldiers themselves did the same."
Euro-Med Monitor indicated it was alarmed by the evident falsehood of the Israeli army's claim that the Palestinian detainees subjected to torture in the presence of Israeli settlers were fighters who took part in the October 7 operation, pointing out that their subsequent release serves as proof that this narrative is untrue and was intended as a means of seeking revenge on Palestinian civilians and attacking their dignity.
'New Guantanamo': Hundreds of Gazan detainees killed under torture
In mid-December, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that hundreds of Palestinians who were detained in Gaza and taken to the "Sde Teman" base near Beer al-Sabe’ were killed as a result of the harsh detention conditions.
It further stated that "the age group of the Palestinian detainees killed while under investigation ranges from minors to elderly individuals."
The newspaper described how "detainees are locked in fenced areas blindfolded and handcuffed for most of the day, with lights kept on throughout the night.”
Israeli media had broadcast scenes showing dozens of Palestinian detainees stripped naked and blindfolded, which sparked international outrage.
An Israeli senior advisor to the Israeli Prime Minister, Mark Regev, justifies arresting #Palestinians in #Gaza naked by saying that it is 'sunny' in the Middle East. pic.twitter.com/m4din2VY2S
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) December 10, 2023
Meanwhile, Palestinians reported that the invading occupation forces detain Palestinians, take them to an unknown destination, and shoot them directly.
Commenting on Haaretz’s report, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Observatory announced that the testimonies it collected were consistent with the Israeli outlet’s findings regarding the martyrdom of Palestinian detainees from Gaza due to torture in an Israeli center that the Observatory described as a “new Guantanamo".
Among the crimes committed by the Israeli occupation against civilians are forced displacement, field executions, random and arbitrary arrests, and harassment.
The Observatory also highlighted how detainees were stripped of their clothes, handcuffed, abused, forced to sit on their knees in open areas, and subjected to severe beatings and harassment despite the very cold weather.
Some detainees were even used by the Israeli army as human shields.
To this end, the Observatory called for "an impartial and urgent international investigation into the Israeli army's field execution of Palestinian civilians after detaining them from various areas across the Gaza Strip."
Systematic abuse, torture: This is how IOF treated detained Gazans
Similarly, an investigation by the Canadian +972 magazine news website revealed that dozens of Palestinian men who were detained in Gaza were subjected to systematic violations and torture at the hands of Israeli occupation soldiers.
The report recalled that "in early December, images circulated worldwide showing dozens of Palestinian men in the city of Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip, who were stripped to their underwear, kneeling or sitting hunched over, then blindfolded and put into the back of Israeli military trucks like cattle."
No, this is not a video from Nazi #Germany in the 1940s.
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) December 26, 2023
It is a video showing the Israeli occupation rounding stripped #Palestinian detainees in a stadium.
A child and a toddler can be seen in the horrific video.
This is just one example of Israeli savagery practiced in #Gaza… pic.twitter.com/NNgBNxOQVE
According to the report, "The vast majority of these detainees were civilians with no affiliation to Hamas, Israeli security officials later confirmed, and the men were taken away by the army without notifying their families of the detainees’ whereabouts."
"Some of them never returned," it noted.
The website cited testimonies of several Palestinian civilians who were detained as saying that "Israeli soldiers subjected Palestinian detainees to electric shocks, burned their skin with lighters, spat in their mouths, and deprived them of sleep, food, and access to bathrooms until they defecated on themselves."
The investigative report revealed that many detainees "were tied to a fence for hours, handcuffed, and blindfolded for most of the day. Some testified to having been beaten all over their bodies and having cigarettes extinguished on their necks or backs."
"Several people are known to have died as a result of being held in these conditions," it noted.
The report mentioned that Israeli occupation soldiers "ordered all the men to undress, gathered them in one place, and took the photos that were later disseminated on social media."
Read more: Israelis torture Palestinian prisoners using refrigerator trucks
