Hamas condemns Israel over images showing semi-naked Palestinian prisoners
A senior Hamas official accused Israeli forces on Friday of carrying out a “heinous crime against innocent civilians” after images of Palestinian men stripped to their underwear in Gaza circulated on social media.
Israeli TV showed footage on Thursday, which Reuters could not independently verify, of what it said were captured Hamas fighters, stripped to their underwear with heads bowed sitting in a Gaza City street.
“We are talking about individuals who are apprehended in Jabalia and Shejaiya (in Gaza city), Hamas strongholds and centers of gravity,” Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy told a regular briefing in response to a question about the images.
“We are talking about military-age men who were discovered in areas that civilians were supposed to have evacuated weeks ago.”
One photo showed more than 20 men kneeling on the pavement or in the street, with Israeli soldiers looking on and dozens of shoes and sandals abandoned in the road. A similar number of men, also semi-naked, were crammed into the back of a truck nearby.
Some Palestinians said they recognized relatives in the images circulating on social media and denied they had any links to Hamas or any other group.
Reshiq said the men had been captured at a school in Gaza that was being used as a shelter after weeks of Israeli bombardments that have displaced many Gazans.
“We strongly emphasize the importance of treating all those detained with humanity and dignity, in accordance with international humanitarian law,” Jessica Moussan, ICRC Media Relations Adviser, Middle East, said in a statement.
Husam Zomlot, head of the Palestinian Mission in London, said on X the images evoked
“some of humanity’s darkest passages of history.”
Prominent Palestinian politician Hanan Ashrawi said on X the incident was
“blatant attempt at the humiliation & degradation of Palestinian men, abducted from their family homes, stripped & displayed like war trophies.”
Footage circulated by Israeli media shows Israel’s military kidnapping Palestinians from Gaza and stripping them naked. pic.twitter.com/1oQn2g1qBj
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) December 7, 2023
Photos show the Israeli occupation forces' arresting tens of Palestinian civilians, forcing them to strip off their clothes and subjecting them to abuse in the Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip.
pic.twitter.com/qo8QZPh1s6
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen)
December 7, 2023
CAIRO: A senior Hamas official accused Israeli forces on Friday of carrying out a “heinous crime against innocent civilians” after images of Palestinian men stripped to their underwear in Gaza circulated on social media. Izzat El-Reshiq, who is in exile abroad, urged international human rights...
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