Hamas condemns Israel over pictures exhibiting detained Palestinians in underwear

CAIRO, Dec 8 (Reuters) – A senior Hamas official accused Israeli forces on Friday of finishing up a “heinous crime in opposition to harmless civilians” after pictures of detained Palestinian males stripped to their underwear in Gaza circulated on social media.

Izzat El-Reshiq, who’s in exile overseas, urged worldwide human rights organisations to intervene to point out what occurred to the boys and assist safe their launch.

The Worldwide Committee of the Pink Cross (ICRC) mentioned it was involved by the photographs and that each one detainees should be handled with humanity and dignity in accordance with worldwide humanitarian legislation.

Iranian International Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, whose nation backs Hamas, additionally criticised Israel, accusing it on X of “barbarity within the therapy of harmless captives and residents”.

Israeli TV on Thursday confirmed footage, which Reuters has verified, of what it mentioned had been captured Hamas fighters, stripped to their underwear with heads bowed sitting in a Gaza Metropolis road.

“We’re speaking about people who’re apprehended in Jabalia and Shejaia (in Gaza metropolis), Hamas strongholds and centres of gravity,” Israeli authorities spokesperson Eylon Levy informed a briefing when requested concerning the pictures.

“We’re speaking about military-age males who had been found in areas that civilians had been presupposed to have evacuated weeks in the past.”

Israeli’s army has been telling civilians to depart areas the place it plans to function after launching its marketing campaign to remove Hamas in Gaza following the Islamist militant group’s Oct. 7 killing spree in Israel.

One picture confirmed greater than 20 male detainees kneeling on the pavement or on the street, with Israeli troopers wanting on and dozens of sneakers and sandals deserted within the street. An identical variety of detainees, additionally semi-naked, had been crammed into the again of a truck close by.

Some Palestinians mentioned they recognised family members within the pictures and denied that they had hyperlinks to Hamas or another group. Some, they mentioned, had been boys or youths.

Reshiq mentioned the detainees had been captured at a college in Gaza that was getting used as a shelter after weeks of Israeli bombardments which have displaced many Gazans.

Jordanian International Minister Ayman Al Safadi, talking at an information convention forward of a gathering with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, mentioned docs and journalists had been among the many males captured and “humiliated.”

APPEAL TO HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS

Hamas held Israeli forces chargeable for the lives and security of the detained males, Reshiq added.

“And we urge human rights organizations to instantly intervene to reveal this heinous crime in opposition to harmless civilians taking refuge in a college, which had became a shelter due to Zionist aggression and massacres, and to place stress by all means to safe their launch,” he mentioned.

The London-based Arabic language information outlet Al-Araby Al-Jadeed mentioned one of many males detained was its correspondent Diaa Kahlout. It urged the worldwide group and rights teams to denounce the arrest of journalists. The Committee to Shield Journalists known as for his launch.

Some Palestinians recognized the place the place the boys had been captured because the northeastern city of Beit Lahia, an space that Israel had warned civilians to depart and has been encircled and besieged by Israeli tanks for weeks. Reuters confirmed the placement was Beit Lahia.

Hani Almadhoun, a Palestinian American based mostly in Virginia, mentioned he noticed family members in a single picture together with his 12-year-old nephew, and that that they had no hyperlinks to Hamas or different factions.

“We strongly emphasize the significance of treating all these detained with humanity and dignity, in accordance with worldwide humanitarian legislation,” Jessica Moussan, ICRC Media Relations Advisor, Center East, mentioned in a press release.

Husam Zomlot, head of the Palestinian Mission in London, mentioned on X the photographs evoked “a few of humanity’s darkest passages of historical past.” Palestinian politician Hanan Ashrawi mentioned on X the incident was “blatant try on the humiliation & degradation of Palestinian males…stripped & displayed like warfare trophies”.

Our Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Belief Rules.