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jewishvoiceforpeace: A new report from @dcipalestine reveals that the Israeli military in Gaza is detaining, torturing, and using Palestinian children as human shields, while systematically separating them from their families.
Defense for Children International Palestine (DCIP) gathered accounts from children who survived Israeli military torture. “They treated us like animals, not humans. When they entered our house, the soldiers were shouting and firing bullets everywhere. They took me from the house and ordered me to undress, then they tied me up and blindfolded me,” 16-year-old Palestinian Mohammad S. told DCIP.
“I was kicked in the face, and the marks are still visible. They dragged me on the ground, and blood was pouring from my knees, feet, face, and head. I didn’t know where I was. They threatened to kill me and throw my body to the dogs to eat, and they cursed me constantly with obscene words I had never heard before.”
Since 2000, DCIP has recorded at least 31 cases in which Palestinian children were utilized by Israeli forces as human shields. Both international law and the Israeli High Court of Justice prohibit the use of civilians as human shields.
The enforced disappearance and torture of Palestinian children violates international law and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which the Israeli government has ratified. Despite this, the Israeli military’s actions constitute war crimes and endanger Palestinian children.
The Israeli government and the US, which enables these abuses, must be held accountable. The first step must be an arms embargo now.
That these lines can appear in the Associated Press about a U.N. report and it’s not the biggest story in the world is telling — particularly in the context of a genocide launched on these precise claims in reverse
“He told me to take them. In the next attack, use them as a human shield.” An IDF soldier and five former Palestinian detainees tell CNN that the Israeli military has used civilians as human shields in Gaza, as @JDiamond1
reports.
@SuppressedNws
BREAKING: New testimonies of sexual violence and harassment conducted by Israeli soldiers against Palestinian women. “Some soldiers would touch women’s private parts.” “Some of the girls were wearing buttoned shirts. He would stick his hand inside and if she made a sound or screamed, he would hit her on the head” Testimony of a released Palestinian woman captured in Gaza recounts sexual harassment and abuse. Strip searches were conducted on both women and young men, followed by threats of rape and severe interrogations. She was also used as a human shield.
…and I touched his finger. He kissed my finger, and started shivering and shivering and I told him that I more than love and worry about him and that he is with us, with us all the time. I did touch his finger and he touched mine.”
He has no been released yet.
An elderly Palestinian man, released from Israeli prison, describes the torture he suffered. “They kept hitting us from here to there (our entire bodies) while we were handcuffed. On our arms and legs, and we were blindfolded.” Now he’s back to Gaza, where he’ll likely die of disease, starve or be bombed.
19 recently released detainees were transferred to the European Hospital in Khan Yunis via the Karam Abu Salem crossing today. One of the released individuals described severe beatings inflicted on all detainees without exception, regardless of age or condition. He detailed being forced to remain blindfolded and in restrictive positions for hours on iron beds, with heads lowered to the ground, under constant threats and vulgar insults. Source: amr.tabash (IG)
Brutal beatings, diseases, starvation – my Palestinian friends in the West Bank who served time in Israeli prisons since late 2023 returned with appalling reports of what can only be called systematic torture / Jonathan Pollak
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-01-16/ty-article-static/.premium/blood-covered-the-floor-fear-ran-like-electricity-through-my-body-i-knew-exactly-whats-coming/00000194-6044-d2ad-a19d-764d0f860000
@RamAbdu
We have obtained preliminary harrowing testimonies of sexual violence perpetrated by Israeli occupation soldiers against nurses, patients, and their companions at Kamal Adwan Hospital and in front of Al-Farid Hall. The testimonies reveal horrific details of degrading assaults, where soldiers forced women to strip under threats and humiliation. One account described a soldier forcing a nurse to remove her pants and groping her. When she tried to stop him, he struck her hard on the face, causing her nose to bleed. Another testimony reported that soldiers threatened the women, saying, “Take it off, or we’ll strip you by force.” When one of them refused to remove her hijab, a soldier tore her abaya, exposing part of her body. One victim recounted being pulled toward a soldier’s chest as he told her, “Take it off now,” while hurling obscene words at her. Other young women were subjected to similar assaults, as soldiers grabbed their heads, tore at their hair violently near one of the hospital halls, and used degrading gestures and words.
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Affairs Commission and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS) announced that they were informed of Abu Warda’s death after he was transferred from Naqab Prison to Soroka Hospital on December 27, 2024. He had been detained since November 20, 2023, and, according to his family, had not suffered from any pre-existing health issues.—> cont.
In a joint statement, the commission and the PPS confirmed that with Abu Warda’s death, the number of fatalities among Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails has risen to 50 since the beginning of the ongoing genocide. This marks the highest number of fatalities in the history of Palestinian prisoners, making this period the deadliest in the history of the prisoners’ movement since 1967.
The statement described Abu Warda’s death as a new crime in the Israeli system of brutality, which has reached its peak since the start of the ongoing genocide. The commission and the PPS emphasized that the treatment of prisoners is another face of the genocide, with the intent to carry out more executions and targeted killings of detainees.
They warned that the number of victims among prisoners will continue to rise, exacerbated by the ongoing conditions of systematic torture, hunger, assaults, medical neglect, sexual violence, and the deliberate imposition of conditions that lead to severe and contagious diseases, along with unprecedented levels of theft and deprivation.
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Affairs Commission and the PPS held the Israeli occupation fully responsible for Abu Warda’s death. They renewed their call for the international human rights system to take decisive actions to hold Israeli leaders accountable for war crimes and to impose sanctions that would isolate Israel on the international stage.
They also urged the international community to restore the primary role of human rights organizations and put an end to the exceptional immunity granted to Israel by colonial powers, which has placed Israel above accountability.
@_ZachFoster
When describing the hundreds of Israelis taken captive on Oct. 7th, virtually all US media & politicians refer to them as “hostages,” even though many were soldiers enforcing an illegal & inhumane blockade of 2M civilians for 17 years. That makes (some of) them not hostages but prisoners of war, since blockades are considered acts of war according to both international law & Israel itself. https://x.com/_ZachFoster/status/1737924827443257831… When describing the 3,600 Palestinians taken captive before Oct. 7th, during & after Oct. 7th, virtually all US media & politicians refer to them either as prisoners or “administrative detainees,” but almost never as political prisoners or hostages, even though this type of prisoner (“administrative detainees”) is not charged with a crime, they cannot present a legal defense, their imprisonment can be renewed forever, they are subjected to torture and starvation, and many were abducted in the middle of the night as bargaining chips for prisoner swap. This double standard in language is called bigotry, an anti-Palestinian bigotry that has infected nearly the whole of the US political & media class. For more on the Palestinian hostages: https://palestinenexus.com/articles/3600-forgotten-palestinian-hostages-administrative-detainees?rq=hostages
All 69 women & 21 children Palestinian prisoners/captives released at dawn today suffered from severe ill treatment including verbal & physical violence, deprivation & isolation. Israeli prisons are notorious for their abuse & torture of Palestinian prisoners. We rejoice at the release of our women & child captives, & look forward to the release of the remaining 11,000. Freedom is priceless.