Gaza activist claims he was tortured during Israeli detention

Gaza activist claims he was tortured during Israeli detention
At least six detainees have died, with one autopsy revealing one prisoner had severe injuries. (File/AFP)
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Updated 22 January 2024
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Gaza activist claims he was tortured during Israeli detention

Gaza activist claims he was tortured during Israeli detention
  • Ayman Lubbad said he was undressed, beaten, forced to kneel for hours in freezing weather
  • Allegations come in the wake of reports that hundreds of Gaza detainees subjected to torture by Israeli army soldiers

LONDON: Gaza-based human rights activist Ayman Lubbad claims that he was tortured by Israeli soldiers during his detention, the Guardian reported on Saturday.

Lubbad, who works at the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, said he was detained on Dec. 7 when Israeli forces ordered the evacuation of his neighborhood.

The men were forced to undress in public, leading to global outrage as images of this incident circulated. The US described the images as “deeply disturbing,” and the International Committee of the Red Cross emphasized the need for the humane treatment of detainees.

Lubbad, who has not seen his wife and children for over a month, said that  during his detention, he faced various forms of torture, a plight shared by many Palestinians recently detained by Israel.

According to reports published in Haaretz, at least six detainees have died, with one autopsy revealing one prisoner had severe injuries. Investigations by Reuters and +972 magazine alleged that hundreds of Gaza detainees were subjected to electric shocks, burns, stress positions, and deprivation of necessities.

Lubbad claimed that during his detention he was transferred to various locations and faced continuous mistreatment. He reported being forced to kneel for long hours, subjected to mock interrogations, severe cold and physical assault.

“The Israeli soldiers photographed us inappropriately and compelled some of the detained boys to dance. They set fire to the homes of the Muqayd, Mahdi, Kahlot and Sorour families in front of us while we were seated in the street,” he told the Guardian.

Lubbad was taken two hours later to a beach near the Zikim kibbutz in the north of Gaza, then “handcuffed and blindfolded” and transported to an army camp in Ofakim.

There Gaza residents were detained behind barbed wire-enclosed shelters, with 500 to 700 men overseen by Israeli soldiers in two elevated guard posts. The men had to kneel with their eyes covered from 5 a.m. to midnight.

“Any attempt to change your position or remove the blindfold resulted in punishment, including standing with hands raised above the head for about three hours and beatings,” Lubbad said.

Interrogations were conducted with an investigator who mocked his job by saying: “I’ll teach you your rights well in prison.”

Five days after being ordered to leave his home, he was transferred again. He claimed he was beaten in the ribs during the move and was in so much pain that he could not sleep for two nights.

Other prisoners told him that the new facility was located in Jerusalem’s Jabal Mukaber neighborhood. On his first day, he was interrogated from midday for 10 hours.

His interrogator demanded information about Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and when Lubbad explained that he was a civilian activist who was unaware of the armed groups, the man became enraged and threatened to treat Gaza residents like dogs.

“The investigator threatened me and cursed me with obscene words while hitting me in the face. He placed a blindfold over my eyes and went to drink tea or have lunch,” Lubbad said.

“On his return, he would ask me the same questions about Hamas and I would answer that I did not know any details and that my social relationships were very limited.”

He claimed that at the end of the interrogation he was blindfolded and forced to sit outside in the freezing cold. He was later assaulted and heard that others had been beaten too. “After I could not bear the extreme cold, some soldiers came and beat me and told me ‘every dog has its day.’”

The detention center reportedly holds hundreds of Gaza residents who had been working in Israel before Oct. 7.

Lubbad was released, without being charged, in Rafah, far from his family in Beit Lahia. Due to Israel’s restrictions on people’s movements, he was unable to meet his family.

After crossing into Gaza, Lubbad later heard that his brother was killed in an Israeli airstrike.

The Israeli army, when asked by the Guardian about Lubbad’s claims, stated that all allegations of abuse would be investigated.


Israel armys says ‘eliminated’ five Hamas militants in north Gaza raid

Israel armys says ‘eliminated’ five Hamas militants in north Gaza raid
Updated 4 sec ago
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Israel armys says ‘eliminated’ five Hamas militants in north Gaza raid

Israel armys says ‘eliminated’ five Hamas militants in north Gaza raid
  • Israeli military: Slain militants had ‘led the murders and kidnappings in the area of Mefalsim’

JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said on Friday it had “eliminated” five Hamas militants, including two commanders, in an overnight raid in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahia.
In a statement, the military and the Shin Bet security agency said they had “eliminated five Hamas terrorists, including a Nukhba (commando) company commander and an additional company commander who participated in the October 7 massacre” that sparked the Gaza war last year, adding that the slain militants had “led the murders and kidnappings in the area of Mefalsim,” a kibbutz in southern Israel.


Strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs after Israeli evacuation call

Strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs after Israeli evacuation call
Updated 22 November 2024
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Strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs after Israeli evacuation call

Strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs after Israeli evacuation call
  • The Israeli army also called overnight for the evacuation of several areas in the south of the country

BEIRUT: Strikes hit the southern suburbs of Beirut on Friday shortly after the Israeli army called for the evacuation of certain neighborhoods, AFPTV footage showed.
In addition to the suburbs of the Lebanese capital, the Israeli army called overnight for the evacuation of several areas in the south of the country.


UN could meet with Israel PM despite warrant: UN

UN could meet with Israel PM despite warrant: UN
Updated 22 November 2024
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UN could meet with Israel PM despite warrant: UN

UN could meet with Israel PM despite warrant: UN
  • UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Netanyahu have not spoken since the war started
  • UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said UN policy on contacts with people facing arrest warrants dates back to a document issued in 2013

UNITED NATIONS: The arrest warrant issued against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the war in Gaza does not bar UN officials from meeting with him in the course of their work, the UN said Thursday.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Netanyahu have not spoken since the war started as a result of the Hamas attack against Israel on October 7, 2023, although there have been contacts with the Israeli leader by UN officials in the region.
Guterres has been declared persona non grata by Israel, which accuses him of being biased in favor of the Palestinians. So talks between him and Netanyahu are very unlikely.
After the warrants issued Thursday by the International Criminal Court against Netanyahu, former defense minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas’s military chief Mohammed Deif, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said UN policy on contacts with people facing arrest warrants dates back to a document issued in 2013.
“The rule is that there should not be any contacts between UN officials and individuals subject to arrest warrants,” Dujarric said.
But limited contacts are allowed “to address fundamental issues, operational issues, and our ability to carry out our mandates,” he added.
In late October, at a summit of the BRICS countries in Russia, Guterres met with President Vladimir Putin, who faces an arrest warrant from the ICP over the war in Ukraine.
That meeting, during which Guterres reiterated his condemnation of the Russian invasion, angered Ukraine.


Palestinians welcome ICC arrest warrants for Israeli PM and former defense minister

Palestinians welcome ICC arrest warrants for Israeli PM and former defense minister
Updated 22 November 2024
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Palestinians welcome ICC arrest warrants for Israeli PM and former defense minister

Palestinians welcome ICC arrest warrants for Israeli PM and former defense minister
  • Palestinian Authority calls on UN member states to ensure the warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, who are accused of war crimes, are acted upon
  • The EU’s chief diplomat, Josep Borrel, says decision is ‘binding’ on all members of the International Criminal Court

LONDON: Palestinians welcomed the decision by the International Criminal Court on Thursday to issue arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former minister of defense, Yoav Gallant.

The Palestinian Authority said the court’s decision comes as Israeli forces continue to bomb Gaza in a conflict that has killed nearly 45,000 Palestinians since the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas, and it hopes the ruling will help to restore faith in international law, the official Palestinian WAFA news agency reported.

Netanyahu and Gallant are the first leading officials from a nation allied with the West against whom the ICC has issued arrest warrants since the court was established in July 2002. It also issued an arrest warrant for Mohammed Deif, the head of the military wing of Hamas. Israeli authorities said in August he was killed by their forces in an attack the previous month, though Hamas have not confirmed this.

All three men are accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity over their actions during the war in Gaza or the Oct. 7 attacks.

The PA said the decision to issue warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant was important because Palestinians “are being subjected to genocide and war crimes, represented by starvation as a method of warfare,” as well as mass displacement and collective punishment.

The PA, which signed up to the ICC in 2015, called on all UN member states to ensure the warrants are acted upon and to “cut off contact and meetings with the international wanted men, Netanyahu and Gallant.” Israel is not a member of the ICC.

The EU’s chief diplomat, Josep Borrel, posted a message on social media platform X on Thursday in which he described the court’s decisions as “binding” on all those who have signed up to it.

“These decisions are binding on all states party to the Rome Statute (the treaty that established the ICC), which includes all EU member states,” he wrote.

Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister who has spent 17 years in office during three spells in charge since 1996, denounced the decision by the ICC to issue the warrant as “antisemitic.”

He said it would “have serious consequences for the court and those who will cooperate with it in this matter.”


Between bomb craters: Taxis stuck on war-hit Lebanon-Syria border

Between bomb craters: Taxis stuck on war-hit Lebanon-Syria border
Updated 21 November 2024
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Between bomb craters: Taxis stuck on war-hit Lebanon-Syria border

Between bomb craters: Taxis stuck on war-hit Lebanon-Syria border

MASNAA, Lebanon: Stuck in no man’s land on the war-hit Lebanon-Syria border, cab driver Fadi Slika now scrapes a living ferrying passengers between two deep craters left by Israeli air strikes.

The journey is just 2 km, but Slika has no other choice — his taxi is his only source of income.

“My car is stuck between craters: I can’t reach Lebanon or return to Syria. Meanwhile, we’re under threat of (Israeli) bombardment,” said the 56-year-old.

“I work and sleep here between the two holes,” he said.

A dual Lebanese-Syrian national, Slika has been living in his car, refusing to abandon it when it broke down until a mechanic brought a new engine.

His taxi is one of the few that has been operating between the two craters since Israeli strikes in October effectively blocked traffic on the Masnaa crossing.

The bombed area has become a boon for drivers of tuk-tuks, who can navigate the craters easily. 

A makeshift stall, the Al-Joura (pit in Arabic) rest house, and a shop are set up nearby.

Slika went for 12 days without work while waiting for his taxi to be fixed. The car has become his home. A warm blanket covers its rear seats against eastern Lebanon’s cold winters, and a big bag of pita bread sits on the passenger side.

Before being stranded, Slika made about $100 for trips from Beirut to Damascus.

Now, an average fare between the craters is just $5.50 each way, though he said he charged more.

On Sept. 23, Israel intensified its aerial bombing of Lebanon and later sent in ground troops, nearly a year after Hezbollah initiated limited exchanges of fire in support of Hamas amid the Gaza war.

Since then, Israel has bombed several land crossings with Syria out of service. 

It accuses Hezbollah of using what are key routes for people fleeing the war in Lebanon to transfer weapons from Syria.

Amid the hardship of the conflict, more than 610,000 people have fled from Lebanon to Syria, mostly Syrians, according to Lebanese authorities.

Undeterred by attacks, travelers still trickle through Masnaa, traversing the two craters that measure about 10 meters deep and 30 meters wide.

On the other side of the road, Khaled Khatib, 46, was fixing his taxi, its tires splattered with mud and hood coated in dust.

“After the first strike, I drove from Syria and parked my car before the crater. When the second strike hit, I got stuck between the two holes,” he said, sweat beading as he looked under the hood.

“We used to drive people from Damascus to Beirut. Now, we take them from one crater to another.”

Khatib doesn’t charge passengers facing tough times, he said, adding he had been displaced from southern Beirut, hammered by Israeli raids since September. He moved back to his hometown near the Masnaa crossing.

Despite harsh times, a sense of camaraderie reigns.

The drivers “became like brothers. We eat together at the small stall every day ... and we help each other fix our cars,” he said.

Mohamed Yassin moved his coffee stall from the Masnaa crossing closer to the pit after the strike, offering breakfast, lunch, and coffee. “We try to help people as much as possible,” he said.

Farther from the Lebanese border, travelers crossed the largest of the two crevasses, wearing plastic coverings on their shoes to avoid slipping in the mud.

A cab driver on a mound called out, “Taxi to Damascus!” while tuk-tuks and trucks ferried passengers, bags, and mattresses across.

Nearby, Aida Awda Mubarak, a Syrian mother of six, haggled with a tuk-tuk driver over the $1 fare.

The 52-year-old said she was out of work and needed to see her son after the east Lebanon town where he lives was hit by Israeli strikes.

“Sometimes we just can’t afford to pay for a tuk-tuk or a cab,” she said.