Top US diplomat accused of ignoring accusations of Israeli abuses: Report
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has failed to take action against Israel for alleged human rights violations carried out by its forces against Palestinians, despite recommendations given to him by officials in his own department, a news report says.
A special State Department panel – the Israel Leahy Vetting Forum – made the recommendations in December to halt American aid to Israeli military and police units allegedly involved in abuses, but Blinken has not acted, current and former department officials told US news outlet ProPublica.
“They’ve been sitting in his briefcase since then,” one unnamed official is quoted as saying. The allegations against Israeli forces include extrajudicial killings, torture and rape. The abuses occurred mostly in the occupied West Bank and before Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, it said.
A State Department spokesperson told ProPublica a “careful and full review” is under way.
‘They talk about torture’
Even on Palestinian Prisoner’s Day, we have seen Israeli forces raiding Palestinian cities, towns and villages across the occupied West Bank. The message is that arrests will not stop, and we have seen that even increase during the holy month of Ramadan and Eid.
But when we talk about the raids and the arrests, we are not just talking about people who are being put in jails.
We have been listening to very difficult testimonies from Palestinian prisoners who have been recently released, saying that since the war, everything has changed when it comes to the conditions of Palestinians. They talk about torture, about being beaten up.
So this cycle of violence against Palestinians inside Israeli jails is making Palestinian families much more worried now when they see their sons, their daughters, their loved ones being taken by Israeli forces.
Palestinians arrested in Gaza ‘beaten and humiliated’
We have been reporting again and again that Palestinians who have been arrested by the Israeli military have endured inhumane conditions. The military has been blindfolding detainees, investigating them under really unbearable circumstances, including beating people and driving them to undisclosed locations.
Since day one of the fighting, the Israeli military has launched a wide arrest campaign in which Palestinian detainees have been beaten and humiliated.
This is obvious with the marks on the bodies of Palestinians who were detained.
Israeli forces arrest 40 in the occupied West Bank
According to the Wafa news agency, the arrests took place in the Nablus area, Ramallah, Bethlehem, Jericho, Hebron and Jerusalem. The Israeli army also demolished the houses of two prisoners in Hebron, the report said.
Since the start of the war in Gaza, violence has increased to unprecedented levels across the occupied Palestinian territory. Israeli forces have conducted nearly daily raids, with a Palestinian prisoners’ watchdog saying at least 8,000 people have been arrested since October 7.
