Israeli military under spotlight for ‘secret’ detention of Palestinians

“The huge number of men, women, children, doctors, journalists and human rights defenders detained since 7 October, most of them without charge or trial and held in deplorable conditions, coupled with reports of ill-treatment, torture and violations of due process guarantees, raise serious concerns about the arbitrary and fundamentally punitive nature of such arrests and detentions,” said UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk, whose Office published the report.

Complaint about water torture

“Testimony collected by my Office and others points to a range of horrific practices, such as waterboarding and unleashing dogs on detainees.among other acts, flagrant violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law,” he said.

Report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) details the treatment of medical staff, patients and civilians fleeing the conflict, as well as captured fighters from the enclave, the occupied West Bank and Israel, since Hamas-led terrorist attacks on southern Israel sparked the war.

At least 53 Palestinian prisoners have died in Israeli military facilities and prisons since October 7.

“They don’t know if the detainees are alive or dead,” The authors of the report said, recounting the experiences of family members, mainly male relatives, who were taken away. “often chained and blindfolded” by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) from various locations in Gaza. “They have not heard any information about their fate or health since then.”

Uncertain target

Among those arrested in Gaza – including staff of the UN agency providing assistance to Palestinian refugees, UNRWA – “Many were arrested while taking shelter in schools, hospitals and residential buildings, or at checkpoints during the forced displacement of large numbers of Palestinians from northern to southern Gaza.“, the report notes. “In most cases, men and minors were arrested, although women, including a woman in her 80s with Alzheimer’s disease, and girls with no apparent links to armed groups, were also detained.”

OHCHR’s records were compiled through interviews with released Palestinians as well as monitoring and analysis conducted by OHCHR’s field office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

In danger

The document contains testimonies from men detained by the IDF in Gaza, including UNRWA staff, who claim they were “forced by IDF soldiers to enter tunnels and buildings in Gaza ahead of the soldiers.”

Other testimonies indicate that Palestinians are detained “en masse for screening” by the Israeli military, or for remaining in areas ordered evacuated by the IDF. “Many of the released detainees, all of whom identified themselves and appeared to be civilians, reported being interrogated without legal representation about the location of the tunnels and/or hostages,” OHCHR said.

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