In an internal UN report released on 5 March, the widespread ill-treatment of Palestinian detainees in Israeli detention centres was revealed. The report, prepared by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA), is largely based on interviews with Palestinian detainees who have been released at the Kerem Shalom crossing since last December. At the time, UNRWA staff were providing humanitarian support there.
More than 1,000 detainees have been released since December, but more than 4,000 men, women and children have been detained in the Gaza Strip since Hamas launched its attack on southern Israel on October 7, triggering the current conflict, the report said. The report details the ill-treatment suffered by the detainees, including beatings, dog attacks, prolonged forced holding of stress positions, and **. It also noted that some detainees have suffered serious bodily harm as a result of these ill-treatments.
Israel has denied these allegations of abuse, blaming them on Hamas propaganda. Israel has named 12 UNRWA staff members for their involvement in the October 7 attacks, and claims that 450 of the agency's 13,000 staff in Gaza are members of Hamas or other militant groups.
The United Nations is investigating these Israeli allegations, but no conclusive evidence has been found. The report also mentions that UNRWA staff have also been detained and ill-treated while on assistance missions, and that Israeli jailers have tried to force them to provide information or to defame the organization through beatings and threats.
Israeli soldiers guard a cart of ** and blindfolded Palestinians.
"Detainees were reportedly transported by truck to large, makeshift 'camps' with a capacity of 100 to 120 people each," UNRWA's document said. While interrogated in nearby locations, they are often held there for weeks at a time. The worst abuses took place in these detention and interrogation centres, the document said. The detainees are then transferred to the Israeli prison system.
The Knesset passed legislation after the war with Hamas and extended it for three months in January, allowing the security services to hold detainees for 180 days without providing lawyers.
"Reported methods of abuse include beatings, forced to hold tense positions for long periods of time, threats to harm detainees and their families, dog-based assaults, humiliation, insults to personal dignity such as making them act like animals or urinating on them, using noisy ** and noise, depriving them of water, food, sleep, and toilets, depriving them of the right to practice religion (prayer), and prolonged use of tightly locked handcuffs to cause open wounds and abrasions," the UNRWA report said. ”
"Beatings include blows to the head, shoulders, kidneys, neck, back and legs with blunt instruments with metal rods, gun butts and boots, sometimes resulting in rib fractures, shoulder separation and lasting injuries," the report said.
The allegations in the report cannot be independently verified, but they are consistent with information obtained by foreign media and information collected by human rights organizations.
The report also includes allegations of widespread criminalization, but does not include it. Detained women reported being fumbled blindfolded, and some male inmates said their *** was beaten.
The IDF has denied the allegations in the UNRWA report in its entirety and has provided the Guardian with a written statement saying: "The ill-treatment of detainees in custody or during interrogation is contrary to the values of the IDF and contrary to the orders of the IDF and is therefore absolutely prohibited." ”
"The IDF denies the blanket and unsubstantiated claims about the treatment of detainees in its detention facilities," the statement added. These claims attempt to falsely equate Hamas's use of ** as war **. ”
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was aware of the deaths in custody and that every case was under investigation. "The investigation has not yet been concluded, so we cannot comment on any of the findings," the statement said. ”
Editor: Sissy).