‘Crime Against Humanity’: Rights Group Says Israel Humiliating Gaza Prisoners

IQNA – A human rights group based in Geneva said on Monday that Israeli forces had allowed settlers to witness the torture and humiliation of Palestinians who had been detained from the Gaza Strip during the brutal Israeli war there.

The group, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, said it had obtained testimonies from some of the released detainees, who described being subjected to various forms of abuse and degradation in front of the settlers.

The group said the abuse took place at the Zikim military base near the northern border of Gaza and the Negev prison in south of occupied Palestinian territories, where many of the detainees were held for weeks without charges or trials.

According to the testimonies, the settlers were brought to the detention centers on several occasions and were permitted to watch, film and photograph the detainees, who were forced to strip naked, beaten with metal rods and electric shocks, and sprayed with hot water.

One of the detainees, Omar Abu Mudallala, 43, from Gaza, told Euro-Med that he was tortured and abused throughout his 52-day detention. He said the Israeli forces told the settlers that the detainees were the same Palestinian militants who had carried out Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7, 2023, following which the Israeli regime launched its genocidal war on Gaza.

"The settlers were filming us on their mobile phones while we were subjected to beating, abuse, and torture. They were making fun of us," Abu Mudallala said.

He said he saw the settlers five times during his detention, once at Zikim and four times at Negev, where they were taken inside tents to observe the torture sessions.

Euro-Med said in its report that it was shocked by the false claims of the Israeli military that the Palestinian civilians who were tortured in front of the settlers were involved in the October 7 operation. It said the release of most of the detainees proved that they had no connection to the raid and that the abuse was meant to exact revenge and violate their dignity.

"The Israeli army's torture and inhumane treatment of Palestinian prisoners and detainees is illegal under the Rome Statute and constitutes crimes against humanity," the Euro-Med said, adding that staging of these abuses as entertainment for Israeli settlers "and subsequent photography of the victims amounts to a grave violation of the dignity of these individuals, as well as the commission of war crimes."

Source: Agencies