A new report by UNRWA has detailed torture and sexual violence inflicted upon Palestinians detained in Gaza by Israeli forces.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) published a report on Tuesday saying it had documented the release of 1,506 Palestinian detainees via the Karam Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing on 4 April, many of whom had suffered torture, ill-treatment, and sexual violence at the hands of Israeli forces.

UNRWA staff members were among the released detainees and the report said they were forced to confess to actions they were innocent of.

“I saw people [in detention] 70 years old, very old. There were people with Alzheimer’s, old people who were blind, people with disabilities who couldn’t walk, people who had shrapnel in their backs and couldn’t stand up, people with epilepsy… and torture was for everyone,” the UNRWA report quoted a 46-year-old detainee as saying.

Some were made to sit on their knees for 12-16 hours a day with their hands tied.

Dogs were also used to attack the detainees, with some of those released, including children, having dog bite wounds on their bodies.

Women were verbally harassed and touched inappropriately by soldiers and were forced to strip naked in front of male soldiers. Some were photographed and filmed naked.

  • livus@mander.xyzEnglish
    121·
    8 months ago

    UNRWA also said that its staff had been detained while carrying out their duties in Gaza, being held in the same conditions as the other detainees.

    They were interrogated about their work and threatened to make false confessions about the UN agency, including that it had links with Hamas.

    Among the forms of torture the UNRWA staff were subjected to were severe beatings, being forced to strip naked, threats of rape and electrocution, threats of violence and murder at gunpoint, attacks by dogs, and threats against the lives of their families.