UN says staff, Gaza detainees subjected to ill-treatment
GENEVA: The UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) said some of its staff members and other people detained by Israeli forces in Gaza were subjected to ill-treatment, including severe beatings and being forced to strip naked.
In a report published on Tuesday, UNRWA said that staff that were detained, in some cases while performing official duties, were “held incommunicado and subjected to the same conditions and ill-treatment as other detainees,” which it said included several different forms of abuse.
The agency said staff members had said they were subjected to beatings and treatment akin to waterboarding, threats of rape and electrocution, and were forced to strip naked, among other forms of ill-treatment.
“UNRWA has made official protests to the Israeli authorities about the reported treatment of Agency staff members while they were in Israeli detention centers,” it said. “UNRWA has not received any response to these protests to date.”
The Israeli military has said it acts according to Israeli and international law and those it arrests get access to food, water, medication and proper clothing. The military and the Israel Prison Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the claims in the UNRWA report.
The Palestinian Prisoners Society has said Israel refuses to disclose information on the number of people from Gaza it has detained over the past six months, or on where they are being held.
UNRWA has documented the release of 1,506 detainees from Gaza, including 43 children and 84 women, by the Israeli authorities through the Kerem Shalom crossing as of April 4.
The freed detainees were subjected to “insults and humiliation such as being made to act like animals or geting urinated on, use of loud music and noise, deprivation of water, food, sleep and toilets, denial of the right to pray and prolonged use of tightly locked handcuffs causing open wounds and friction injuries,” according to UNRWA.
“Detainees were threatened with prolonged detention, injury or the killing of family members if they did not provide requested information,” UNRWA said.
“In most reported detention incidents, the IDF forced males, including children, to strip down to their underwear. UNRWA also documented at least one occasion where males sheltering in an UNRWA installation were forced to strip naked and were detained while naked.”
Israel’s military operation in Gaza was triggered by Hamas’s Oct. 7 atack, which by its tallies killed 1,200 with 253 taken hostage.
The subsequent bombardment has killed more than 33,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian medics, displaced the majority of
Gaza’s 2.3 million people and caused a grave humanitarian crisis.
The Israeli army said World Food Programme aid that arrived via the Ashdod port entered the besieged Gaza Strip on Wednesday through an Israeli land crossing.
It would mark the first time Israel has allowed a UN agency to get aid to Gaza via the port since announcing it would open earlier this month.
“Eight World Food Programme trucks of flour entered the Gaza Strip from the Ashdod port today,” the army said in a statement.
On April 5 Israel said it would use the Ashdod port, just north of Gaza, to deliver aid to the Palestinian territory which the UN and aid agencies have repeatedly warned is on the brink of famine.
“The trucks underwent a thorough security inspection at the Ashdod port,” the Israeli army said. “They were then admited into the Gaza Strip via the Kerem Shalom Crossing.”
On Tuesday the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said there had been “no significant change” in the amount of humanitarian aid entering Gaza, even ater the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to allow in more.
On the other hand, Qatar is re-evaluating its role as mediator in ceasefire talks between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, citing concerns that its efforts are being undermined by politicians seeking to score points, its prime minister said on Wednesday.
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who is also foreign minister, said there was a “misuse of this mediation for narrow political interests, and this necessitated Qatar to undertake a full evaluation of this role”.
Sheikh Mohammed did not identify any politicians by name.
Qatar’s embassy in Washington on Tuesday criticised comments made by US Democratic congressman Steny Hoyer, in which he called on the US to “reevaluate” its relationship with Qatar.
Hoyer said on Monday that Qatar must threaten Hamas with “repercussions” if the militant Palestinian group “continues to block progress towards releasing the hostages and establishing a temporary ceasefire”.
Some other US lawmakers have suggested in recent months that Qatar supports Hamas, an accusation rejected by the Gulf state, which hosts some 10,000 US troops, the largest US military presence in the Middle East.
Sheikh mo hammed under scored on wednesday that the role of mediator has limits: “(Mediators) cannot provide things that the parties themselves refrain from (offering).”