UN Finds ‘Appalling Acts’ of Torture Against Palestinians BECOMING BARBARIANS!

 

UN Finds ‘Appalling Acts’ of Torture Against Palestinians

August 1, 2024

Experts said the OHCHR report served mainly to confirm previous findings on Israeli detention centers.

Palais des Nations, the seat of the U.N. in Geneva. (UN Photo/Violaine Martin)

By Edward Carver
Common Dreams

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on Wednesday released a report detailing torture and abuse of Palestinians at Israeli detention centers, including sexual violence, waterboarding, and the use of dogs.

Israeli security forces have also used electric shocks, burned detainees with cigarettes, and deprived them of food, water, sleep, and toilet access, according to the 23-page OHCHR report, based largely on interviews with released detainees.

Some detainees said they were held with their arms suspended from the ceiling; were forced to be naked for prolonged periods, wearing only diapers; and were blindfolded for extended periods.

The OHCHR report comes as a highly controversial case involving detention abuse unfolds in Israel. The Israeli military is investigating nine soldiers for alleged “substantial abuse” of a Palestinian detainee who reportedly had to be hospitalized [after being sodomized] and could not walk after they attacked him. [Far-right Israeli groups stormed the jail trying to free the soldiers.] 

[Historian Juan Cole reported:

“Rejecting these charges against the soldiers, a right wing mob that included members of the Parliament from the Likud and the Religious Zionist and Jewish Power blocs, then attempted several times to storm through the gates of the facility and finally succeeded in breaching the military barricades, attacking MPs and reaching the area where Palestinians are held. One soldier said that no one seemed to be in control.

The unruly crowd chanted its support for torture and even called for the summary execution of the Palestinian prisoners. Journalist Haggai Matar observed, “In essence, soldiers are in open rebellion for the right to rape prisoners, and more and more coalition politicians are joining them – from Likud, Jewish Power, and more.”

The mob, including the parliamentarians, then attempted but failed to storm the Beit Lid base, where the nine detainees were being held for interrogation.”]

More Than 9,000 Detained

Israel security forces have arrested thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza since October, many of them arbitrarily; they held more than 9,400 “security detainees” as of the end of June, often in secret and incommunicado, without providing a reason for the detainment, the OHCHR report says.

“The testimonies gathered by my office and other entities indicate a range of appalling acts, such as waterboarding and the release of dogs on detainees, amongst other acts, in flagrant violation of international human rights law and international humanitarian law,” U.N. Human Rights chief Volker Türk said in a statement accompanying the report.

 Türk addressing the General Assembly in December 2023. (UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe)

Most of the detainees have been men and adolescent boys, though some are also women and adolescent girls, and there are many reported instances of sexual and gender-based violence, the report says, including

“the forced nudity of both men and women; beatings while naked, including on the genitals; electrocution of the genitals and anus; being forced to undergo repeated humiliating strip searches; widespread sexual slurs and threats of rape; and the inappropriate touching of women by both male and female soldiers.”

OHCHR also said it had video evidence of detainees filmed in “deliberately humiliating positions” while handcuffed and blindfolded, and noted it received “consistent reports” of Israeli security forces “inserting objects into detainees’ anuses.”

Some detainees also reported “cage-like” facilities and overcrowding. The report says that 13 to 20 male detainees were kept in cells designed for five people, forcing many to sleep on the floor. There were “poor living, hygiene, and health conditions, with reports of water running only one hour per day over several weeks” and detainees faced “exposure to cold temperatures due to the confiscation of blankets and removal of windows panes in cold weather.”

53 Dead in Detention

At least 53 Palestinian detainees have died in Israeli detention centers since October, according to the report, which suggests that the detention system appears “to constitute a collectively punitive measure against Palestinians,” citing the words of Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s minister of national security, who has said that “terrorists” deserve the most “stringent conditions.” Male detainees reported losing between about 55 and 120 pounds while in custody.

Ben-Gvir, on phone, and radical right political activist Bentzi Gopstein in Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem in February 2022. (CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons)

Concern about Israeli detentions of Palestinians has been high for many months. In January, a Palestinian watchdog group issued a report condemning the forced disappearance of Gazans, and The New York Times found evidence of detainees being stripped and beaten.

Not all of the alarms about the situation in Israeli detentions centers have come from abroad. In February, Israeli’s public defender’s office issued a report calling for improved prison conditions, including for Palestinians.

In April, local human rights groups called for a closure of the Sde Teiman military base detention center, due to its notorious conditions.

The calls were prompted in part by gruesome reports including amputations of detainees’ limbs due to handcuff injuries. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East then issued a damning report on detainee treatment, including of its own staff, some of whom had been detained and subjected to harsh interrogation.

Last week, Save the Children called for an end to the Israel’s arbitrary detainment of Palestinian minors, with a regional director saying that “these children are trapped, unable to move or see the sun, forced into crowded cells with appalling, unsanitary conditions, and subject to severe abuse and violence.”

Experts said Wednesday that the OHCHR report served mainly to confirm previous findings on Israeli detention centers.

Neil Sammonds, a campaigner at the U.K.-based progressive advocacy group War on Want, said on social media that leaders of the new U.K. government haven’t spoken up about abuses at Israeli detention centers. He also said that the report could be used as evidence by the International Criminal Court, which has sought arrest warrants for both Israeli and Hamas leaders.

The new report also addresses abuses of Israelis held by Hamas and affiliated groups. The Palestinian militants killed roughly 1,200 people in a horrific set of attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7 and kidnapped about 250 Israelis, more than 100 of whom have since been released.

Like Palestinian detainees, the released Israelis reported “appalling” conditions, the report says, including beatings, receiving surgery without anesthetic, and sexual and gender-based violence. The Israeli government has reported that 44 of the remaining hostages in Gaza have died. 

Both Israel and Hamas have refused to allow the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit detainees or hostages. The OHCHR called for both sides to allow such independent monitoring.

Edward Carver is a staff writer for Common Dreams.

This article is from Common Dreams.

CONSORTIUM NEWS

UN Finds ‘Appalling Acts’ of Torture Against Palestinians

 

UN Finds ‘Appalling Acts’ of Torture Against Palestinians Experts said the OHCHR report served mainly to confirm previous findings on Israeli detention centers. Read here... _______________________________________________________________________________________ Green Groups That Didn’t Back Biden Endorse Harris Groups backing Harris were angered by Biden supporting the Willow project and Mountain Valley Pipeline, continuing fossil fuel lease sales, and skipping last year’s U.N. summit. Read here... _______________________________________________________________________________________ WATCH: Assange’s ‘Maggie’ Island A look at the island in Queensland where the WikiLeaks publisher, now free and returned home to Australia, grew up. Read here... _______________________________________________________________________________________ You can make a donation to Consortium News by   credit card online  or by  mailing a check  to   Consortium for Independent Journalism (CIJ) 2200 Wilson Blvd. Suite 102-231 Arlington, VA 22201     CIJ is a 501-c-3 tax-exempt organization, so your donations may be tax-deductible in the United States. (You also can direct donations to us through your company's charitible-giving programs.)   consortiumnews.com

UN Probe Finds 'Appalling Acts' of Torture Against Palestinians Detained by Israel BECOMING BARBARIANS!

 

Palestinian Faouzi Abdel Aal, 21, is rushed to Nasser hospital in the southern Gaza Strip to receive treatment for his injuries, after being reportedly released from an Israeli detention center on July 25, 2024. 

(Photo: Bashar Taleb/AFP via Getty Images)

UN Probe Finds 'Appalling Acts' of Torture Against Palestinians Detained by Israel

The U.N. report found evidence of sexual violence, waterboarding, and the use of dogs against detainees, many of whom were deprived of food, water, sleep, and toilet access.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on Wednesday released a report detailing torture and abuse of Palestinians at Israeli detention centers, including sexual violence, waterboarding, and the use of dogs.

Israeli security forces have also used electric shocks, burned detainees with cigarettes, and deprived them of food, water, sleep, and toilet access, according to the 23-page OHCHR report, based largely on interviews with released detainees. Some detainees said they were held with their arms suspended from the ceiling; were forced to be naked for prolonged periods, wearing only diapers; and were blindfolded for extended periods.

Israel security forces have arrested thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza since October, many of them arbitrarily; they held more than 9,400 "security detainees" as of the end of June, often in secret and incommunicado, without providing a reason for the detainment, the report says.

"The testimonies gathered by my office and other entities indicate a range of appalling acts, such as waterboarding and the release of dogs on detainees, amongst other acts, in flagrant violation of international human rights law and international humanitarian law," U.N. Human Rights chief Volker Türk said in a statement accompanying the report.

Most of the detainees have been men and adolescent boys, though some are also women and adolescent girls, and there are many reported instances of sexual and gender-based violence, the report says, including "the forced nudity of both men and women; beatings while naked, including on the genitals; electrocution of the genitals and anus; being forced to undergo repeated humiliating strip searches; widespread sexual slurs and threats of rape; and the inappropriate touching of women by both male and female soldiers."

OHCHR also said it had video evidence of detainees filmed in "deliberately humiliating positions" while handcuffed and blindfolded, and noted it received "consistent reports" of Israeli security forces "inserting objects into detainees' anuses."

Some detainees also reported "cage-like" facilities and overcrowding. The report says that 13 to 20 male detainees were kept in cells designed for five people, forcing many to sleep on the floor. There were "poor living, hygiene, and health conditions, with reports of water running only one hour per day over several weeks" and detainees faced "exposure to cold temperatures due to the confiscation of blankets and removal of windows panes in cold weather."

At least 53 Palestinian detainees have died in Israeli detention centers since October, according to the report, which suggests that the detention system appears "to constitute a collectively punitive measure against Palestinians," citing the words of Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel's minister of national security, who has said that "terrorists" deserve the most "stringent conditions." Male detainees reported losing between about 55 and 120 pounds while in custody.

The OHCHR report comes as a highly controversial case involving detention abuse unfolds in Israel. The Israeli military is investigating nine soldiers for alleged "substantial abuse" of a Palestinian detainee who reportedly had to be hospitalized and could not walk after they attacked him. Far-right Israeli groups and political figures have protested the investigation.

Concern about Israeli detentions of Palestinians has been high for many months. In January, a Palestinian watchdog group issued a report condemning the forced disappearance of Gazans, and The New York Times found evidence of detainees being stripped and beaten.

Not all of the alarms about the situation in Israeli detentions centers have come from abroad. In February, Israeli's public defender's office issued a report calling for improved prison conditions, including for Palestinians. In April, local human rights groups called for a closure of the Sde Teiman military base detention center, due to its notorious conditions.

The calls were prompted in part by gruesome reports including amputations of detainees' limbs due to handcuff injuries. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East then issued a damning report on detainee treatment, including of its own staff, some of whom had been detained and subjected to harsh interrogation.

Last week, Save the Children called for an end to the Israel's arbitrary detainment of Palestinian minors, with a regional director saying that "these children are trapped, unable to move or see the sun, forced into crowded cells with appalling, unsanitary conditions, and subject to severe abuse and violence."

Experts said Wednesday that the OHCHR report served mainly to confirm previous findings on Israeli detention centers. Neil Sammonds, a campaigner at the U.K.-based progressive advocacy group War on Want, said on social media that leaders of the new U.K. government haven't spoken up about abuses at Israeli detention centers. He also said that the report could be used as evidence by the International Criminal Court, which has sought arrest warrants for both Israeli and Hamas leaders.

The new report also addresses abuses of Israelis held by Hamas and affiliated groups. The Palestinian militants killed roughly 1,200 people in a horrific set of attacks in southern Israel on October 7 and kidnapped about 250 Israelis, more than 100 of whom have since been released. Like Palestinian detainees, the released Israelis reported "appalling" conditions, the report says, including beatings, receiving surgery without anesthetic, and sexual and gender-based violence. The Israeli government has reported that 44 of the remaining hostages in Gaza have died.

Both Israel and Hamas have refused to allow the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit detainees or hostages. The OHCHR called for both sides to allow such independent monitoring.

COMMON DREAMS

IF YOU WANT TO DEFEND ISRAEL, WATCH THE VIDEO! 

THIS IS GENOCIDE! 

YOU ARE COMPLICIT IF YOU FAIL TO SPEAK OUT! 

UN: Israel Flattened Civilian Housing Complexes with 2000-lb. Bombs in absence of Specific Military Target

JUAN COLE06/22/2024

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a report this week on “Indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks during the conflict in Gaza” during the first three months of the Israeli campaign against Gaza.

The UN is painfully polite, so you may not be able to tell that the terms “indiscriminate” and “disproportionate” are war crimes, of which it is accusing the Israeli government.

The report notes, “According to the Israeli Air Force (IAF), between 7 October 2023 and 19 February 2024 over 29,000 targets in Gaza were attacked.”

Again, although OHCHR is agreeably quoting this official Israeli source, it is not paying a compliment to the air force for its thoroughness:

“The rate at which Palestinians were killed in Gaza during this reporting period was reportedly higher than in any recent conflicts globally.”

Again, not a compliment.

In fact, you have to think of this litany of facts and figures as sort of like the opening statement of a prosecuting attorney, establishing the grounds for a conviction.

They are building up to it: “The war has also witnessed many tragic instances of entire families killed together, from infants to grandparents, many while in their homes (128,904 housing units have been damaged between 7 October 2023 and 1 April 2024) or in other places they had sought safety. According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, as of 3 May 2024, more than 3,129 families have been killed or injured together.” The OHCHR subjected reports of Israeli attacks and their aftermath to very sophisticated CSI-style forensics.

They found, “87 per cent of the verified fatalities have occurred in incidents that resulted in 5 or more fatalities, and over 60 per cent were killed in incidents that resulted in 10 or more fatalities.”

What they discovered is that the Israeli attacks weren’t targeted at, say, a single Hamas militant. The Israeli military went big. Six in ten of their strikes produced 10 or dozens of fatalities. That outcome is weird if you were only trying to kill 37,000 militiamen in a population of 2.2 million people. You’re only targeting 1.6 percent of the population, none of which are women or minors. But “the majority of those killed are children and women.”

So what is the significance of entire families being killed or wounded and over a hundred thousand domiciles being damaged?

Here’s what the High Commissioner’s office is getting at: “These statistics suggest that Israel’s choices of methods and means of conducting hostilities in Gaza since 7 October, including the use of explosive weapons with wide area effects in densely populated areas, have failed to ensure that they effectively distinguish between civilians and combatants. The widespread, large-scale and continuing toll of civilian deaths, notably the high proportion of women and children amongst them, and accompanying destruction of civilian infrastructure in Gaza since 7 October, raise serious concerns about the Israeli Defense Forces’ (IDF) compliance with IHL, including as to patterns of systematic violation of the principles of necessity, distinction, proportionality, and precautions in attack.”

Violating these four principles is in each case a war crime. Remember that the International Court of Justice is deciding whether Israel is guilty of genocide, and the International Criminal Court has asked for warrants against Israel’s prime minister and its minister of defense on grounds that they may have committed war crimes.

The report gives examples of each of the violations it has identified. Last October 9, the Israeli air force appears to have dropped without warning a 2,000-pound BLU-109/MK 84 bomb on the densely populated Jabaliya Refugee settlement, pulverizing two multi-story buildings and damaging many others, and killing at least 60 people, wounding dozens more. A 2000-pound bomb can have a blast radius of a quarter mile. The point is that this was not a precision strike on a handful of guerrillas. It took out two apartment buildings full of families.

The same day, more 2000-pound bombs were dropped on Gaza city: “An area of 5,700 square metres [61,354 square feet] was essentially flattened, with at least seven structures, including Taj3 Tower, completely destroyed and three other structures showing signs of significant damage.”

61,000 square feet is the size of a town shopping center.

In fact, the US Pentagon, which has very good satellite photography, has seen 500 craters consistent with use of 2000-pound bombs. The US military is clearly appalled, since these weapons should not be used on densely populated urban areas, and were not deployed by the US against ISIL in Mosul, for instance. Several Biden administration officials, civilian and military, who have seen these atrocities unfold and recognize them for what they are have resigned in protest.

That is why President Biden paused a shipment of 2000-pound bombs to Israel– he didn’t want them used on Rafah, which had swollen with refugees. Netanyahu, however, just vigorously protested that halt, saying he needs the bombs. What does he plan to do with them? Knock down that last three apartment buildings in Gaza?

The report gives other examples of the Israelis flattening entire residential blocks. It concludes that the Israeli army in Gaza has not distinguished between military targets and civilians, and that it has launched indiscriminate attacks on urban infrastructure with no specific military target in sight.

Israeli commanders violated the principle of proportionality, which holds that “an attack which may be expected to cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, damage to civilian objects, or a combination thereof, which would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated.” That is, you can’t take out a whole city block and kill hundreds of people to get at three terrorists. But that procedure has been the Israeli war on Gaza in a nutshell.

Using 2000-pound bombs on dense neighborhoods also violates the principle of precaution, which requires military commanders to give some thought beforehand to what would happen to unarmed civilians if they chose a highly destructive 2000-pound bomb to accomplish their mission rather than something more appropriate to targeting a small guerrilla band.

Moreover, there is no evidence that the Israeli military issued any warnings to the civilians it planned to wipe out. These attacks were not like the US Fallujah campaign in Iraq in fall of 2004, where most of the city was allowed to leave before the assault.

So if the Israeli government has committed war crimes, it has to investigate them and punish those responsible. Otherwise, the High Commissioner warns ominously, “Member States must support accountability measures at the international level, including through the International Criminal Court.”

Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant had better enjoy Israel in the summer, because their future ability to travel will be circumscribed when they are convicted of war crimes by the ICC.

Middle East Eye Video:
“Israel dropped hundreds of 2,000-pound bombs on Gaza”

INFORMED COMMENT

       

         SILENCE MAKES YOU COMPLICIT TO GENOCIDE!
         THERE IS NO EXCUSE TO IGNORE THE ACTIONS OF ISRAEL! 

        

UN Human Rights Office Condemns Israel's Use of 2,000-lb Bombs Against Gaza Civilians

A new OHCHR report details how Israeli "attacks of an apparent indiscriminate nature" fit a wider pattern for hundreds of such bombings that may violate international laws of war.

The United Nations Human Rights Office released a report Wednesday concluding that the Israeli military's repeated use of heavy weaponry—including 2,000-pound bombs supplied by the United States—in the Gaza Strip has likely violated international laws of war barring the targeting of civilians and disproportionate attacks.

The new report specifically examines six Israeli attacks that the U.N. Human Rights Offices says are "emblematic" of the Israel Defense Forces' (IDF) broader assault on Gaza, which has killed more than 37,000 people, unleashed a hellish humanitarian crisis, and destroyed much of the Palestinian enclave's infrastructure—including education, healthcare, and water facilities.

The attacks analyzed by the U.N. took place between October 9 and December 2 of last year and involved the use of 2,000-pound, 1,000-pound, and 250-pound bombs on residential buildings, a market, refugee camps, and a school. At least 218 people were killed in the six Israeli attacks, the U.N. found, and evidence suggests the actual number of fatalities "could be much higher."

The report says Israeli forces used roughly nine 2,000-pound bombs in a December 2 attack on a neighborhood in Gaza City, causing destruction across a distance of 130 meters.

"These attacks of an apparent indiscriminate nature are among hundreds of a similar nature, giving rise to the appearance of a pattern of attacks over months," the report states. "The pattern of Israeli strikes exemplified by the six incidents above indicates that the IDF may have systematically violated the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precautions in attack—fundamental principles of international humanitarian law on the conduct of hostilities—in the course of its attacks in Gaza since 7 October 2023."

"The requirement to select means and methods of warfare that avoid or at the very least minimize to every extent civilian harm appears to have been consistently violated in Israel's bombing campaign."

Volker Türk, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said in a statement Wednesday that "the requirement to select means and methods of warfare that avoid or at the very least minimize to every extent civilian harm appears to have been consistently violated in Israel's bombing campaign."

The human rights office's report is the latest of several recent U.N. analyses accusing Israeli forces of committing grave war crimes in Gaza—including torture, using starvation as a weapon of war, and genocide—as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demands more weaponry from the U.S. to continue its devastating assault.

Reuters reported Wednesday that "Israeli tanks backed by warplanes and drones advanced deeper into the western part of the Gaza Strip city of Rafah," killing at least eight people and forcing more residents to run for their lives. At least a million people have fled Rafah since Israel began invading the city last month.

"Residents said the tanks moved into five neighborhoods after midnight," Reuters noted Wednesday. "Heavy shelling and gunfire hit the tents of displaced families in the Al-Mawasi area, further to the west of the coastal enclave... Residents said Israeli army forces blew up several homes in western Rafah, which had sheltered over half of Gaza's 2.3 million people before last month, when Israel began its ground offensive and forced most of the population to head northwards."

A Palestinian boy sits as people search the rubble of a family destroyed in overnight Israeli strikes in the al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on June 18, 2024.

 (Photo: Bashar Taleb/AFP via Getty Images)

COMMON DREAMS