Palestinian American detained in the West Bank by IDF was beaten and not granted consular access, family says
Samaher Esmail, a Palestinian American detained in the West Bank by the Israel Defense Forces, still has not been given US consular access more than a week later and was beaten and denied medication in Israeli custody, her family said in a statement Tuesday.
The family said that Esmail, 46, was "dragged" from her home by IDF members and "beaten badly in Israeli custody." They also said her home was destroyed in the process. "Despite having had her prescription medication from the moment they arrested her, the IDF has declined to administer it," according to the family statement. "Despite having a clear obligation to grant Consular access, the Netanyahu government has declined daily requests from the US Embassy for permission to visit Ms. Esmail."
The IDF confirmed Esmail’s detention, saying she was “arrested for incitement on social media,” but did not respond to the allegations of mistreatment raised by the family. State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said he could not speak to the specific claims made by the family, citing privacy laws.
According to the family, Esmail was detained because of "10-year-old Facebook posts and political cartoons she shared." "Ms. Esmail’s opinions may be disfavored in Israel proper, but the inescapable reality is they were protected speech which no rational person could consider an incitement to violence," the statement said.
The family said she has not been formally charged with a crime. According to the statement, Esmail was presented to a military commission on Monday and was granted bail, but the IDF appealed the ruling. Esmail's family called on the US to do more to obtain consular access to her.
“The United States is not without tools to obtain consular access to Ms. Esmail and to end her ordeal. It just has to find the moral courage to do so, which has been, thus far, a tall order,” the statement said.
Israel has become "blinded by rage" and risks unleashing a massacre in Rafah, Irish prime minister says
Leo Varadkar, Ireland's Taoiseach (or prime minister), strongly criticized Israel Tuesday, accusing the country of becoming "blinded by rage" as it doubles down on plans to launch a ground offensive on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where Israeli forces previously told hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians to seek shelter.
Speaking to lawmakers in the Irish parliament, Varadkar said it was "very clear" to him that Israel is "is not listening to any country in the world," even the United States. "They [Israel] have become blinded by rage. And they are going to, I believe, make the situation much worse for their own security in the long term by going down the path they are going," the Irish leader said.
Varadkar said an Israeli ground offensive on the border city of Rafah "should not happen," drawing attention to the 1.3 million Palestinians who are "taking refuge there." "There is a serious risk of a massacre occurring in Rafah if a ground assault were to occur," Varadkar warned. Other members of the Irish government joined Varadkar in condemning Israel this week including Trade Minister Simon Coveney, who accused the country of acting like a rogue state and behaving "like a monster to defeat a monster."
WHO chief pleads with Israel to not enter Rafah, warning the outcome could be "hell"
Ahead of an expected Israeli ground operation on Rafah in southern Gaza, the World Health Organization (WHO) has pleaded with Israel to not carry out the incursion, saying it will be a “serious disaster.”
“The situation is already beyond words. I can’t even describe the situation in Gaza. And if this assault happens on Rafah I think it will be a serious disaster,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told CNN’s Becky Anderson in Dubai on Tuesday in an exclusive interview. “The best solution is not to do it, and I think the whole world is calling for that. Doing it, I can’t imagine what will happen…I don’t think even hell could describe it...I plead to Israel not to do this,” he added.
Panic is soaring in Rafah as desperate Palestinians decide whether to flee the last refuge in Gaza while Israel draws up plans for its ground offensive. Dr. Tedros called for a ceasefire, saying it was the only way to find a lasting solution to the conflict. “More than 28,000 deaths now, and more than 70% are women and children. That alone is enough to stop the war, because those who are dying are the wrong people and who haven’t done anything to bring this problem," he said.
Civilians flee Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza amid heavy gunfire
Palestinian civilians on Wednesday are fleeing Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, amid an ongoing Israeli military operation, according to a journalist at the hospital, the Ministry of Health in Gaza, and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). A journalist at the hospital with whom CNN spoke on Wednesday said that hundreds of patients and people sheltering at the hospital are leaving. The sound of heavy gunfire can be heard in the background.
“The Israeli occupation forces thousands of displaced people, families of medical staff, and patients who cannot move to forcibly evacuate from the Nasser Medical Complex,” Dr. Ashraf Al-Qidra, spokesperson for the Ministry of Health in Hamas-controlled Gaza said in a statement on Wednesday. “They are threatened with extreme danger.”
What Israel is saying: The IDF in a statement Wednesday said that its soldiers had “opened a secure route to evacuate the civilian population taking shelter in the area of the Nasser Hospital toward the humanitarian zone.” It said that it did “not intend to evacuate patients and medical staff,” and that the operation was “being conducted in a controlled and precise manner by IDF troops in order to prevent terrorists exploiting the evacuation.”
More on the situation on the ground: Video filmed on Tuesday at the hospital shows columns of smoke at its perimeter, an Israeli bulldozer destroying a hospital perimeter wall, and an armored vehicle entering the hospital grounds. The sound of gunfire can be heard throughout.
