Israel used dogs, waterboarding on Palestinian detainees from Gaza: UN report
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/7/31/israel-subjecting-palestinian-detainees-to-torture-and-abuse-un-report
Thousands of Palestinians have been forcibly removed from Gaza, sometimes from bomb shelters, and dragged into detention in Israel where some have been tortured and at least 53 detainees have died, according to a UN human rights office report released on Tuesday.
Often, they were blindfolded and shackled before being transported to Israel and placed in “cage-like” military centres and forced to wear nothing but nappies for prolonged periods, it said.
“The testimonies gathered by my Office and other entities indicate a range of appalling acts, such as waterboarding and the release of dogs on detainees, amongst other acts, in flagrant violation of international human rights law and international humanitarian law,” said UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk in a statement.
Israel’s prison service held more than 9,400 “security detainees” as of the end of June, and some have been held in secret without access to lawyers or respect for their legal rights.
The report, which is based on interviews with former detainees and other sources, decries a “staggering” number of detainees – including men, women, children, journalists and human rights defenders – and said such practices raise concerns about arbitrary detention.
Israel’s treatment of Palestinian detainees has come under growing scrutiny following multiple media reports and statements from human rights groups describing torture.
On Monday, nine Israeli reservists were taken for questioning by the Israeli army amid a continuing investigation over serious sexual abuse against a Palestinian detainee at the Sde Teiman detention camp. Far-right politicians, including members of the Knesset, have protested against the detention of soldiers suspected of sexual abuse.
Here’s how 10 months of Israeli war have affected Gaza
Since Israel launched its devastating military offensive in October, it has destroyed vast swaths of Gaza, destroying more than 70 percent of its buildings, crippling hospitals and obliterating schools and universities.
Aid groups say the coastal enclave is now “uninhabitable”, due to shortages of food and medicine, while civic infrastructure such as water and electricity have been made largely dysfunctional due to Israeli strikes.
Here’s what the 10 months of Israeli war have done to Gaza – home to 2.4 million Palestinians, 90 percent of whom are now forcibly displaced:
- Nearly 40,000 Palestinians, a majority of whom are children and women, have been killed, making it the deadliest conflict since Israel ethnically cleansed Palestinians from their homeland to create the state of Israel in 1948.
- More than 70 percent of Gaza’s buildings are destroyed. Rebuilding bombed homes in Gaza could take more than 15 years and cost up to $40bn, according to an assessment by the UN Development Programme.
- More than 300 medical personnel have been killed by Israel and only nine of the 36 hospitals are partially functioning, making it difficult to handle more than 90,000 people wounded in Israeli strikes and patients with chronic cases. Rights groups say the targeting of health centres and staff is a war crime.
- Earlier this week, Gaza’s Health Ministry declared a polio epidemic across the Palestinian enclave, blaming Israel’s devastating military offensive for the spread of the deadly virus.
- Nearly 90 percent of Gaza’s 2.4 million people are forcibly displaced and most of the population now faces food insecurity as Israel has destroyed agriculture, bombed the main UN aid agency’s food warehouses and curbed the supply of aid from outside. A UN report says 96 percent of Gaza’s population is food insecure and one in five Palestinians, or about 495,000 people, are facing starvation.
- More than 625,000 children have been out of school since the war erupted. More than 350 schools have been destroyed in Israeli strikes. Twelve higher education institutions in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, completely disrupting university education, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa.
- According to Gaza’s Government Media Office, at least 158 journalists have been killed in Israeli strikes, making it one of the deadliest conflicts for journalists.
- Despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for a Gaza ceasefire in June, Israel has not stopped its deadly war on Gaza.
Israeli forces bomb al-Mawasi, Gaza City, Jabalia
Israel’s military kept up its relentless attacks across the Gaza Strip overnight, bombing and shelling al-Mawasi and Abasan al-Kabira in the south and Gaza City and Jabalia in the north, the Wafa news agency reported.
A number of Palestinians were killed and wounded in the attacks, the agency said, without specifying the exact toll.
Israel has killed 39,445 Palestinians since October: Gaza Health Ministry
Israeli forces have killed at least 39,445 people and wounded at least 91,073 since launching their war on Gaza nearly 10 months ago.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says in the past 24 hours, 45 people were killed and 77 people were wounded.
Among the dead are more than 16,000 Palestinian children. The casualty figures are estimated to be far higher with thousands of bodies buried in the vast debris of bombed-out buildings throughout the Gaza Strip.
