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Israeli rights group documents ‘harrowing’ abuse of Palestinians in Hebron
B’Tselem has published a new report on the abuse of Palestinians by Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank City of Hebron between May and August of this year.
The report – based on testimonies from 25 Palestinians – describes acts of violence, humiliation and abuse directed by soldiers at men, women, teenagers and children, all of whom had been selected arbitrarily as they went about their daily lives.
B’Tselem said none of the 25 people had been suspected of any offence or prosecuted and were released immediately after being assaulted.
“Victims gave harrowing accounts of physical and psychological abuse, including beatings, whipping, having cigarettes put out on their bodies, blows to their genitals, injection of an unidentified substance, prolonged binding and blindfolding, threats, insults and more,” the report said.
The scale of the violence “reflects a particularly brutal manifestation of a systematic, long-standing policy of oppression, expulsion and dispossession that lies at the root of the Israeli apartheid regime,” it added.
Food availability ‘at an all-time low’ across Gaza, says FAO
Beth Bechdol, the deputy director-general of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), is calling for unrestricted and safe access to the Gaza Strip to deliver emergency aid and prevent the spread of famine.
“Today, food availability is at an all-time low across the entire Gaza Strip, and food supply has sharply deteriorated,” Bechdol said at a ministerial conference in the Egyptian capital, Cairo.
“The window of opportunity to deliver assistance is now, today, not tomorrow. Food, medicine and fuel are self-evident priorities, but we must also prioritise the ability to grow food locally where it is needed most to ensure survival,” she said.
Before Israel’s war on Gaza, the enclave was largely self-sufficient in vegetables, eggs, fresh milk, poultry and fish, and produced much of its red meat, olive oil and fruit, according to the FAO. But more than a year later, agricultural food systems have collapsed in Gaza, while Israeli forces have decimated local food production across the whole of the enclave.
