Israel transferring prisoners out of notorious military-run detention camp
Israel’s military is winding down operations at the Sde Teiman detention camp, which has been dogged by allegations of abuse of Palestinian prisoners, according to Israeli justice officials.
State lawyers, responding to a petition filed by an Israeli rights group, said 1,200 prisoners in the camp have already been transferred out, leaving just 200 inmates there.
The reduced numbers will help officials improve conditions at the camp, whose ultimate future has yet to be decided, they say.
Inmates of Sde Teiman, located in the Negev desert, have experienced harrowing abuse, according to whistleblowers, including routine beatings, forced stress positions and amputations due to handcuff injuries.
One exposed 'detention' camp, are there any others?
ICC security measures – action taken after uptick in threats
The International Criminal Court (ICC) says it’s significantly stepped up its security measures after facing what it describes as “unprecedented attempts of intelligence gathering by countries hostile to the court”.
Media investigations published last week found that Israel used its intelligence agencies to threaten the ICC to drop war crimes investigations.
Former Meta employee says fired after highlighting ‘misclassification’ of video by Motaz Azaiza
A former Meta engineer who is suing his employer for discrimination and wrongful termination says he was fired after trying to address irregularities in the handling of posts by Palestinian Instagram personalities, including Gaza-based photojournalist Motaz Azaiza, Reuters reports.
In one case, engineer Ferras Hamad alleges a video shared by Azaiza was “misclassified” as pornography even though it showed a destroyed building in Gaza, Reuters said.
In a complaint lodged in a California state court, Hamad said he believed he might have been fired after he noted irregularities in troubleshooting procedures where posts from Palestinian Instagram personalities were prevented from appearing in searches and feeds.
Hamad said Meta told him he was fired for violating a policy barring employees from working on issues with accounts of people they know personally, referring to Azaiza. Hamad said he had no personal connection to Azaiza.
Meta did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on Hamad’s allegations.
War on Gaza has caused ‘catastrophic damage’ to environment
Marking World Environment Day, the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees has highlighted the harm Israel’s assault has done to the environment in the Gaza Strip in a post on X.
UNRWA said the war has caused “catastrophic damage to the natural environment” that Palestinians depend on for water, clean air, food and livelihoods.
It added that restoring environmental services to Gaza will take “decades” and can begin only when a ceasefire and an end to the war are achieved.
In late January this year, research found that the carbon footprint of Israel’s war on Gaza exceeded the annual emissions of 20 small countries.
