HRW accuses Israel’s military of torturing Palestinian health workers
Human Rights Watch has called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate Israel’s military for the custodial torture of Palestinian doctors, nurses and paramedics.
The group said it interviewed eight released health workers who described mistreatment in Israeli custody, including humiliation, beatings, forced stress positions, prolonged cuffing and blindfolding, and denial of medical care.
“The Israeli government’s mistreatment of Palestinian healthcare workers has continued in the shadows and needs to immediately stop,” said Balkees Jarrah, acting Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.
“The torture and other ill-treatment of doctors, nurses, and paramedics should be thoroughly investigated and appropriately punished, including by the International Criminal Court,” she added.
Media groups urge EU to suspend treaty, impose sanctions on Israel
Some 60 media and rights organisations have called on the bloc to freeze an association accord with Israel and adopt targeted sanctions, accusing it of “massacring journalists” in Gaza.
“In response to the unprecedented number of journalists killed and other repeated press freedom violations by the Israeli authorities since the start of the war with Hamas, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and 59 other organisations are calling on the European Union to suspend its Association Agreement with Israel and to adopt targeted sanctions against those responsible”, the groups said in a joint statement.
The period following Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7 and Israel’s devastating retaliatory assault on Gaza “has been the deadliest for journalists in decades”, the letter said.
“More than 130 Palestinian journalists and media professionals have been killed by the Israeli armed forces in Gaza since 7 October… The targeted or indiscriminate killing of journalists, whether committed deliberately or recklessly, is a war crime,” it stressed.
The call comes ahead of a meeting by EU foreign ministers in Brussels on August 29.
Only 3 out of 18 water wells functioning in Deir el-Balah: UN
The UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) reports that only three out of 18 water wells in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah are functioning, resulting in an 85 percent water shortfall. “Not only are people in Gaza in constant fear for their lives, but they struggle to meet even their most basic needs,” the organisation said in a post on X.
The Israeli military continues to expand its ground invasion of the area, with the latest evacuation order yesterday displacing more Palestinians.
Due to ongoing military operations in Deir Al-Balah, only 3 out of 18 water wells there are still functioning, resulting in an 85% water shortfall.
Not only are people in #Gaza in constant fear for their lives, but they struggle to meet even their most basic needs. #CeasefireNow pic.twitter.com/d8N3ZB2tvu
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) August 26, 2024
‘Slow authorisations and frequent refusals’ as Gaza aid drops
Israeli authorities continue to challenge humanitarian operations in the Gaza Strip amid their expanding ground attacks, the World Food Programme (WFP) reports.
According to the world’s largest humanitarian organisation, “aid workers grapple daily with slow authorizations and frequent refusals when they ask for permission to move” while looting and public order issues are frequent, especially when convoys are forced to wait for hours at Israeli checkpoints.
“In the last two months, WFP has managed to bring in only half of the 24,000 MT [metric tonnes] of food aid required for operations serving 1.1 million people,” it said.
According to the latest report by the UN’s Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 19 percent of 147 planned humanitarian missions to northern Gaza were impeded between August 1 and August 22, with 31 percent denied, and six percent cancelled.
The amount of humanitarian food assistance that entered southern Gaza in July was one of the lowest since October 7, OCHA said.
