Gaza brothers detained and urinated on
Palestinian brothers rounded up by Israel in the Gaza Strip said they and fellow detainees were beaten, stripped to their underwear, burnt with cigarettes and subjected to other forms of mistreatment during their detention.
Sobhi Yaseen, his brothers Sady and Ibrahim, were among dozens of Palestinian men sheltering in a school in Rafah in southern Gaza who spoke to Reuters about their treatment at the hands of Israeli soldiers.
Their accounts were consistent with descriptions provided by more than 20 other former detainees, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Yaseen brothers said they had been taken from their homes in the north of the enclave, separated from their families and held for up to two weeks at unknown locations, including military barracks or a camp.
Sobhi said he and his brothers were detained in early December after the Israeli military encircled the area where they lived and worked as day labourers in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood.
He said four people beat him after he was unable to climb onto a truck due to a leg injury sustained before his arrest.
He was taken to an open area where captors were “smoking and putting out cigarettes on our backs, spraying sand and water on us, urinating on us”.
His brothers Sady and Ibrahim gave similar accounts of mistreatment by Israeli soldiers.
Israel launched its assault on the Gaza Strip in retaliation for a cross-border incursion by Hamas on Oct 7 that left 1,200 dead. More than 21,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli campaign, according to Gaza authorities.
The UN human rights office (OHCHR) said on Dec 16 that it had received numerous reports of mass detentions, ill-treatment and enforced disappearance of Palestinians in northern Gaza by the Israeli military.
International humanitarian law requires that civilians only be detained for imperative security reasons, and torture and other illtreatment of detainees is strictly prohibited, OHCHR said.
Images of detainees stripped to their underwear in Gaza earlier last month triggered outrage from Palestinian, Arab and Muslim officials.
UN rights chief Volker Turk has said Hamas’ attack on Oct 7, its holding of hostages, and Israel’s “collective punishment” and “unlawful forcible evacuation” of civilians, constitute war crimes.
The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, which has been investigating possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in the occupied Palestinian territories since 2021, has called on Israel and Hamas to respect the international rules of war.
The Yaseen brothers sheltering in Rafah said the Israeli military had not made accusations against them. They were rounded up, then separated, as part of group arrests by Israel’s military in areas that it advances into.
Sady was placed with other detainees in a truck containing garbage.
“They were beating us, and those who raised their voice after the beating were beaten again.
“They searched us, took our IDs, money, and phones,” he said, speaking among a group of about 20 men in a tent at the Rafah school, most wearing grey tracksuits issued by the Israeli military.
Some showed large scabs and raw skin on their wrists where they said their hands had been bound or cuffed, and one showed bruised streaks and a round red scar on his back.
Another showed a stitched scar on his thigh where he said he had been beaten.
The third Yaseen brother, Ibrahim, described having his hands bound and being blindfolded as he was held for interrogation.
“They didn’t let us sleep. We stood for hours, as punishment,” he said.
Captors insulted the prisoners while banning them from talking to each other or praying, Ibrahim said.
“Then there would be five soldiers who would hit you alternately in the head and body,” he added, saying he had been beaten in the ribs.
He rolled up his sleeves to show circular scars and scabs from where his wrists were bound.
The Israeli military dropped the brothers off at different times at the Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip, as it has done with other men detained during its ground operation but no longer suspected of links to Hamas.
From there they walked several kilometres to Rafah, where they relocated each other among the hundreds of thousands of displaced and are now living in overcrowded buildings and tents.