In another spine-chilling incident, 24-year-old Palestinian man Muhammad Bhar, who was suffering from Down syndrome and autism, was killed by an Israeli army dog in broad daylight. | Bhar’s diabolic murder earlier this month sent shock waves across the globe and once again brought to focus the genocidal war crimes of the Israeli regime against Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip. ● Bhar family, which had been displaced at least five times during the war, sought refuge in their home in eastern Gaza City’s Shujaiya neighborhood when Israeli troops stormed their house on June 27. ● The regime forces first unleashed their sniffer dogs into the house. The dogs instantly attacked Bhar who was made to sit in the safest corner of the living room by his family.

After 9 months of being in israeli custody, a once perfectly healthy & fit young Palestinian man is released hardly able to stand or walk unaided pic.twitter.com/QLKrePtV4m

— Sarah Wilkinson (@swilkinsonbc) July 9, 2024

■ 'I have the prison inside me': The emaciated Palestinian bodybuilder broken by Israel (MEE)

On Monday, Independent media outlet +972 Magazine released a report detailing interviews the outlet did with Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers, which describe a policy that allowed soldiers to virtually fire at will and required soldiers to burn the homes of Palestinians that they occupied. | The interviewees also alleged that the bodies of Palestinian civilians were allowed to rot in the street and were only hidden by the IDF before international organizations traveled through the area. One soldier testified that soldiers often would fire indiscriminately to blow off steam during the operation. “They report it as ‘normal fire,’ which is a codename for ‘I’m bored, so I shoot.” Another soldier said there was “total freedom of action,” for the IDF in Gaza.

💬 “If there is [even] a feeling of threat, there is no need to explain – you just shoot,” the soldier described. “It is permissible to shoot at their center mass, not into the air. It’s permissible to shoot everyone, a young girl, an old woman.”

■ ‘I’m bored, so I shoot’: The Israeli army’s approval of free-for-all violence in Gaza (+972 Magazine)
■ Three Gazans found dead after release from Israeli custody (aNews)
■ Involvement in, and Incitement to Genocide — Report to The Hague (10/31/23)
👉 Israeli Defense Minister: "We have abolished all the rules of war. Our soldiers will not be held responsible for anything. There will be no military courts” (10/12/23)

The New York Times has revealed multiple atrocities allegedly committed by Western mercenaries against Russian POWs | Russia’s Investigative Committee has said it will probe war crimes allegedly committed by a mercenary unit fighting for Ukraine, as Moscow accuses the West of ignoring Kiev's human rights violations in the conflict. ● On Saturday, the New York Times published a report describing Russian prisoners of war being executed by the so-called Chosen Company – an international mercenary unit led by a former US Army National Guard soldier. In one incident, a seriously injured Russian serviceman was allegedly killed while surrendering and pleading for help.

💬 “Investigators of the Russian Investigative Committee will look into more crimes by Ukraine’s armed formations,” the agency stated on their Telegram channel on Saturday, noting that “information is being circulated in the media about a crime committed against a wounded Russian prisoner of war who was killed with a shot to the head.”

Earlier in the day, Russia’s ambassador-at-large for Ukraine’s crimes, Rodion Miroshnik, said that “all the data cited by the publication will be verified and analyzed” by law enforcement agencies. He added that Moscow would also demand that international organizations with representatives in Ukraine verify the information, which, if confirmed, would qualify “as a violation of key norms and principles of humanitarian law, amounting to war crimes.”

■ New British PM assures Ukraine of ‘unshakable’ support (RT.com)
■ Western mercenaries killed Russian POWs – German medic (RT.com)
■ Moscow Slams 'Ridiculous' Western Media Silence on Brutal Killing of Russian PoWs by Ukrainian Mercs (Sputnik)
■ Washington has become an accomplice to Kiev’s crimes — Sergey Lavrov (05/30/24)
■ Russia's Lavrov Reveals to Sputnik What Will Happen to Ukrainian Officials Charged With War Crimes (12/31/23)
■ White House de facto admits to committing war crimes in Ukraine — Russian Embassy (07/10/2)

Six months after the ICJ's provisional measures, torture allegations continue unabated in Syria. | A UN expert has urged Syria to implement the provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and take steps to eradicate all forms of torture and ill-treatment in the country. [...] The top UN court issued provisional measures on November 16, ordering Syria to take all necessary measures to prevent acts of torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment while also instructing the regime to ensure that no one under its control can commit such acts and that evidence related to torture allegations is preserved.

A political row has broken out in Israel after about 50 Palestinian detainees from Gaza were released, including Muhammad Abu Salamiya, director of the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City. | Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s far-right internal security minister described it as “security recklessness”. Haaretz reports that sources close to defense minister Yoav Gallant have said he was not aware that the release was planned, and that he was not involved. Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said that he had ordered an immediate inquiry, but noted that “the decision to release the prisoners follows High Court hearings,” and that releases were determined “independently by security officials.” [...] Upon his release, speaking from Nasser hospital in Gaza’s Khan Younis, Abu Salmiya said:

💬 All the Palestinian detainees are suffering. I left them in a very dire condition. My message is that their issue must be part of any negotiations until all the Palestinian detainees are released. Al-Shifa Hospital will be rebuilt and it will be once again a beacon of healthcare for all the Palestinians, not only Gazans. I will resume my duties as soon as it is feasible. ● Israel arrests everyone, including medical teams. There are prisoners who died from torture, and there are physicians and medical staff members who are still being held and in need of treatment. We are happy about the release but we left behind thousands who are enduring indescribable suffering.

WikiLeaks confirmed the information of the American court on the conclusion of the transaction on the pleading of guilt between Assange and the Prosecutor's office of the United States | "He (Assange - approx. TASS) left the prison of the maximum security regime Belmarsh on the morning of June 24, after 1,901 days in its walls. The High Court of London released him on bail, and in the afternoon he was released to Stansted airport, where he boarded a plane and flew from the UK," - stated in the message of the organization in the social network X (formerly Twitter). WikiLeaks also confirmed the information of the American court on the conclusion of a plea deal between Assange and the US prosecutor's office. At the same time, according to the organization, it was not yet "officially finalized."

■ After Bangkok Stopover Julian Assange Will Be Heading To A Little-Known Pacific Island Next (Forbes)
■ Julian Assange 'pays $500,000 for chartered flight to Australia' as free man after striking US plea deal
■ Julian Assange's wife Stella 'elated' he is set to be freed (Reuters)

The investigation also determined that Israeli leaders are responsible of 'weaponizing' starvation against Palestinians in Gaza and 'instigating' a pattern of settler attacks in the occupied West Bank | The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI) on 12 June concluded that Israeli authorities are guilty of “war crimes and crimes against humanity” committed during the eight-month-long campaign of genocide in Gaza. ● During its investigation, the COI found that Israeli authorities are responsible for “the war crimes of starvation as a method of warfare, murder or willful killing, intentionally directing attacks against civilians and civilian objects, forcible transfer, sexual violence, torture and inhuman or cruel treatment, arbitrary detention, and outrages upon personal dignity.”

■ Israeli Aggression Continues on 250th Day: Gaza Strip Suffers More Martyrs and Wounded (Al Manar TV)
■ Israel launches air, land, sea strikes against so-called safe zone in Gaza Strip (PressTV)
■ World witnessing ‘unique level’ of death, destruction in war-torn Gaza Strip: UN chief (PressTV)

An anonymous Israeli doctor has revealed a harrowing account of the treatment faced by Palestinians abducted from Gaza. | An anonymous Israeli doctor has come forward with a disturbing account of the conditions Palestinians abducted from Gaza are subjected to. At the request of the Israeli occupation forces, the surgeon was sent to Sde Teiman military base in the al-Naqab desert to operate on a Palestinian abductee from Gaza who suffered from gunshot wounds. ● According to the doctor's account, the patients have no names. They are all strapped to their beds, unable to move. They are blindfolded and stripped down to their underwear. They wear diapers, the doctor detailed. "This is a clear violation of the Geneva Convention and the WHO Code of Ethics. It is far more than just physical and psychological torture," he stressed. ● Reports of abuse at Sde Teiman have already emerged in both Israeli and Arab media, following an outcry from Israeli and Palestinian rights groups about the conditions there. However, this rare testimony from an Israeli doctor working at the facility provides additional insight into “Israel's” policy of systematic torture and abuse amid its genocide in Gaza. It further challenges the Israeli government's repeated claims that it operates by accepted international practices and laws.

The Israeli occupation starves a 13-year-old child to death in Gaza as human rights violations continue to escalate against the people of Palestine. | Once again, the Israeli occupation shows its true colors as it starved a 13-year-old Palestinian boy in Gaza to death due to its closure of the Rafah humanitarian corridor, underlining the ever-worsening humanitarian crisis in the blockaded, war-torn strip. ● The child, Abdul Qader al-Sarhi, succumbed to malnutrition at al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, according to a report by Palestine’s official news agency WAFA. ● Local medical sources reported that the death toll from malnutrition and dehydration in the Gaza Strip has now risen to 37 as the Israeli occupation's aggression continues unabated in the southern city of Rafah. The dire health situation in Gaza has deteriorated further, with hospitals all over the strip being out of service and unable to provide necessary medical care.

Robert Inlakesh | Israel’s claim to have lost control over military units in Gaza is an attempt to gain legal cover for its troops’ war crimes and masks a far deeper issue of systemic impunity inside the occupation army. | Several months after media commentators began predicting a “strategic defeat” for Israeli forces in Gaza, Israel’s military high command is claiming it has lost control over various units in their armed forces. ■ The argument appears to scapegoat occupation soldiers to provide plausible deniability for their superiors and dissociate them from war crimes charges. The vast body of evidence emerging on these alleged ‘rogue Israeli units’ could potentially lead to a damning indictment of Tel Aviv’s military leadership. ■ Despite the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) recent call on Israel to halt its military operation in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains resolute in his vow to invade, even while personally facing an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant. Marred by internal division and pressure to comply with the ICJ order, Tel Aviv finds itself in a precarious position.

👉 Israeli Defense Minister: "We have abolished all the rules of war. Our soldiers will not be held responsible for anything. There will be no military courts” (10/12/23)

■ Gaza civilians voice out their chilling encounters with Israeli torture (TRT World)
■ Tied, diapered, beaten: Israeli insiders reveal severe Palestinian torture (TRT World)
■ Gaza Al-Shifa doctor tortured to death by Israeli forces (Al Mayadeen)
■ 3,000+ Palestinians from Gaza detained, tortured in Israeli prisons (04/16/24)
■ Horrifying cases of torture and degrading treatment of Palestinian detainees, spike in arbitrary arrests (04/13/24)
■ Released Detainees From Israeli Prisons Showed Signs of Torture (03/18/24)
■ Torture, Executions, Babies Left to Die, Sexual Abuse… These Are Israel’s Crimes (03/18/24)
■ Iron bars, electric shocks, dogs and cigarette burns: How Palestinians are tortured in Israeli detention (03/12/24)
■ Horrifying cases of torture and degrading treatment of Palestinian detainees amid spike in arbitrary arrests

Reports and a recent investigation by the IOF police find that two Israeli troops have beaten Palestinian detainees to death. | The two Palestinians were abducted by IOF troops in March from Khan Younis using the pretext that they were suspected members of the Palestinian Resistance. When they were taken, they were still alive, and the IOF strapped them and put them in a truck. However, when they arrived at Sde Teiman, a temporary IOF detention facility near Be'er Shevam, they were already dead.

Jonathan Cook | ‘Black sites’ are about reminding those who have been colonised and enslaved of a simple lesson: resistance is futile | On a misty November morning 21 years ago, I was desperately trying to remain camouflaged. Concealed in the foliage of an orange grove in Israel’s rural Galilee, I hurriedly took photos of a drab concrete building not marked on any map. Even the original road sign identifying the site as Facility 1391 had been removed after a local Haaretz newspaper investigation revealed it housed a secret prison. ■ I was the first foreign journalist to track down Facility 1391, most of it hidden within a heavily fortified complex built in the 1930s to suppress resistance to British rule in Palestine. ■ For decades, Israel had secretly held mostly Arab foreign nationals captive at the site, unknown to the Israeli courts, the Red Cross and human rights groups. Many were Lebanese citizens kidnapped during Israel’s 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon. But there were also Jordanians, Syrians, Egyptians and Iranians.

■ Gaza civilians voice out their chilling encounters with Israeli torture (TRT World)
■ Tied, diapered, beaten: Israeli insiders reveal severe Palestinian torture (TRT World)
■ Gaza Al-Shifa doctor tortured to death by Israeli forces (Al Mayadeen)
■ 3,000+ Palestinians from Gaza detained, tortured in Israeli prisons (04/16/24)
■ Horrifying cases of torture and degrading treatment of Palestinian detainees, spike in arbitrary arrests (04/13/24)
■ Released Detainees From Israeli Prisons Showed Signs of Torture (03/18/24)
■ Torture, Executions, Babies Left to Die, Sexual Abuse… These Are Israel’s Crimes (03/18/24)
■ Iron bars, electric shocks, dogs and cigarette burns: How Palestinians are tortured in Israeli detention (03/12/24)
■ Horrifying cases of torture and degrading treatment of Palestinian detainees amid spike in arbitrary arrests

Hundreds of civilians are fleeing under the gunfire as the Israeli occupation army is strenuously trying to invade Jabalia refugee camp, faced by fierce Palestinian resistance. pic.twitter.com/qCd86RzAcD

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) May 13, 2024

Palestinian prisoners were handcuffed for so long that their limbs died and had to be amputated, three Israeli whistleblowers who spoke to US media revealed, detailing a litany of alleged abuses against prisoners held by Israel in the Sde Teiman military base. | The whistleblowers quoted by The Hill said that the base has two parts, one which includes “intense physical restraint” and the other acting as a field hospital where prisoners are strapped to beds, blindfolded, put in diapers and fed through a tube. ● Prisoners were routinely beaten by guards the whistleblowers say, but the torture wasn’t a part of any kind of interrogation program, according to the news agency. “(The beatings) were not done to gather intelligence. They were done out of revenge,” the whistleblower claimed. “It was punishment for what they did on October 7 and punishment for behavior in the camp.” ● A prisoner from the camp claimed that even talking to another prisoner was enough to earn a beating by Israeli guards. [...] The accusations by the whistleblowers and prisoners match the accusations made in a letter addressed to top Israeli officials by an Israeli doctor who worked at the facility. He described a facility where limb amputations caused by consistent handcuffing were unfortunately “a routine event.”

■ Gaza under Israeli fire: 220 days of genocide and loss (Al Mayadeen)
■ Israel carpet bombs Gaza with no goal in sight (The Cradle)
■ Gaza civilians voice out their chilling encounters with Israeli torture (TRT World)
■ Tied, diapered, beaten: Israeli insiders reveal severe Palestinian torture (TRT World)
■ Gaza Al-Shifa doctor tortured to death by Israeli forces (Al Mayadeen)
■ 3,000+ Palestinians from Gaza detained, tortured in Israeli prisons (04/16/24)
■ Horrifying cases of torture and degrading treatment of Palestinian detainees, spike in arbitrary arrests (04/13/24)
■ Released Detainees From Israeli Prisons Showed Signs of Torture (03/18/24)
■ Torture, Executions, Babies Left to Die, Sexual Abuse… These Are Israel’s Crimes (03/18/24)
■ Iron bars, electric shocks, dogs and cigarette burns: How Palestinians are tortured in Israeli detention (03/12/24)
■ Horrifying cases of torture and degrading treatment of Palestinian detainees amid spike in arbitrary arrests

Heavy Israeli bombardment of Jabalia refugee camp continues. This video shows the bombardment of the medical personnel and journalists in the camp. pic.twitter.com/HFVEA5Be9B

— Mustafa Barghouti @Mustafa_Barghouti (@MustafaBarghou1) May 12, 2024

At a military base that now doubles as a detention center in Israel’s Negev desert, an Israeli working at the facility snapped two photographs of a scene that he says continues to haunt him. | Rows of men in gray tracksuits are seen sitting on paper-thin mattresses, ringfenced by barbed wire. All appear blindfolded, their heads hanging heavy under the glare of floodlights. A putrid stench filled the air and the room hummed with the men’s murmurs, the Israeli who was at the facility told CNN. Forbidden from speaking to each other, the detainees mumbled to themselves. “We were told they were not allowed to move. They should sit upright. They’re not allowed to talk. Not allowed to peek under their blindfold.” Guards were instructed “to scream uskot” – shut up in Arabic – and told to “pick people out that were problematic and punish them,” the source added.

■ Gaza civilians voice out their chilling encounters with Israeli torture (TRT World)
■ Tied, diapered, beaten: Israeli insiders reveal severe Palestinian torture (TRT World)
■ Gaza Al-Shifa doctor tortured to death by Israeli forces (Al Mayadeen)
■ 3,000+ Palestinians from Gaza detained, tortured in Israeli prisons (04/16/24)
■ Horrifying cases of torture and degrading treatment of Palestinian detainees, spike in arbitrary arrests (04/13/24)
■ Released Detainees From Israeli Prisons Showed Signs of Torture (03/18/24)
■ Torture, Executions, Babies Left to Die, Sexual Abuse… These Are Israel’s Crimes (03/18/24)
■ Iron bars, electric shocks, dogs and cigarette burns: How Palestinians are tortured in Israeli detention (03/12/24)
■ Horrifying cases of torture and degrading treatment of Palestinian detainees amid spike in arbitrary arrests

Israel is setting up 'complex network' of checkpoints to prevent 'military age' men from fleeing Rafah assault, senior western official tells MEE | Israel is setting up a complex system of checkpoints that will prevent men of “military age” from fleeing Rafah in preparation for its offensive on the southern Gaza border city, a senior western official familiar with Israel’s plans has told Middle East Eye on condition of anonymity. ● The checkpoints are designed to allow some women and children to leave Rafah ahead of an expected Israeli offensive, but unarmed, civilian Palestinian men will likely be separated from their families and remain trapped in Rafah during an expected Israeli assault. ● The previously unreported disclosure of Israel’s construction of a ring of checkpoints around Rafah underscores how Israel is pushing ahead with plans to attack the city where over one million displaced Palestinians are sheltering in tents and makeshift camps. ● The creation of gender-based checkpoints around Rafah would put a spotlight back on Israel’s practice of stripping and forcibly detaining male Palestinian men and children, as it faces rising scrutiny in the West of its conduct in the war. The rounding up of Palestinian males in Gaza and photographing them stripped to their underwear drew condemnation in December, with the US calling the images “deeply disturbing”.

■ 'Israel' has no 'Intl' credit' to invade Rafah: Ex-Israeli General (Al Mayadeen)
■ Live blog: Israeli army 'ready' to invade Gaza's Rafah in 72 hours (TRT World)
■ Israeli airstrikes on Rafah kill at least 22 people, Palestinian officials say (Spectrum News)
■ 7 more Palestinians killed in fresh Israeli airstrikes across Gaza (aNews)
■ The Israel-US game plan for Gaza is staring us in the face (Jonathan Cook)

Media sources report that Palestinian detainee Kareem Abu Saleh died while detained in an Israeli occupation prison. | A Palestinian father of a newborn died on Saturday evening while being detained in Israeli occupation prisons. ● Media sources reported that Kareem Abu Saleh, from the city of Sakhnin in the Palestinian territories occupied in 1948, was martyred as a result of a surge in Israeli occupation attacks and human rights violations against Palestinian detainees. ● Abu Saleh was blessed with his firstborn two days before his martyrdom inside his cell in the occupation's prisons. Previously, Abu Saleh had spent six years in detention before the Israeli occupation forces re-arrested him 10 days ago.

■ 3,000+ Palestinians from Gaza detained, tortured in Israeli prisons (04/16/24)
■ Horrifying cases of torture and degrading treatment of Palestinian detainees, spike in arbitrary arrests (04/13/24)
■ Released Detainees From Israeli Prisons Showed Signs of Torture (03/18/24)
■ Torture, Executions, Babies Left to Die, Sexual Abuse… These Are Israel’s Crimes (03/18/24)

مؤلم
شاهد الاسير سفيان ابو صلاح اعتقله الاحتلال واقفا على قدميه فخرج من السجن بقدم واحدة نتيجة التعذيب والاهمال الطبي بحق الاسرى الفلسطينيين pic.twitter.com/cgL2mL8SBe

— حسن اصليح | Hassan (@hassaneslayeh) April 15, 2024

Israeli authorities released dozens of Palestinians back to Gaza today, having arbitrarily arrested them at different points throughout the war. One of them, Sofian Abu Saleh, had his leg amputated by Israeli forces during custody. "My leg got infected [in custody], and [the Israelis] refused to take me to a hospital," he said. "After seven days, the infection spread quickly, like gangrene, they then took me to the hospital on did an operation." Abu Saleh says he never suffered of any diseases that could have led to this infection. "I went into [detention] with my two legs, and have returned like this," he said, alluding to this one remaining leg.

Amnesty International has for decades documented widespread torture by Israeli authorities in places of detention across the West Bank. | [O]ver the past four weeks, videos and images have been shared widely online showing gruesome scenes of Israeli soldiers beating and humiliating Palestinians while detaining them blindfolded, stripped, with their hands tied, in a particularly chilling public display of torture and humiliation of Palestinian detainees. ■ In one image analysed by Amnesty International’s Crisis Evidence Lab, three Palestinian men, blindfolded and stripped of their clothes can be seen beside a soldier, wearing a green olive uniform like those worn by the Israeli ground forces. A Haaretz investigation published on 19 October found that the image was taken in Wadi al-Seeq, a village East of Ramallah, on 12 October. One of the three victims depicted in the photograph told Amnesty International that he had initially been held and beaten by settlers but two hours later an Israeli military jeep arrived: 💬 “One of the Israeli officers who came, approached me and kicked me on my left side, then jumped on my head with his two legs pushing my face further into the dirt and then continued kicking me as I was head down, into the dirt, with my hands tied behind my back. He then got a knife and tore all of my clothes off except for my underwear, and used part of my torn clothes to blindfold me. The beating to the rest of my body did not stop, at one point he started jumping on my back – three or four times – while yelling ‘Die, die you trash’ … in the end before this finally stopped, another officer urinated on my face and body while also yelling at us ‘to die’.”

■ Palestinians have died in detention facilities under the custody of the Israel Prison Services (PHRI))(.pdf)
■ Physician at Israeli Field Hospital for Detained Gazans: 'We Are All Complicit in Breaking Law' (Haaretz)

Russian prisoners of war have been tortured in Ukraine between December 2023 and February 2024, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said. | The employees of the OHCHR visited 44 Russian prisoners of war in Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkov, Lvov, Nikolayev, Sumy, Vinnitsa and Zaporozhye regions of Ukraine from December 2023 to February 2024. Ukrainian authorities do not sufficiently prosecute those responsible for torture, violence against civilians and prisoners of war, the OHCHR said.

■ REPORT ON THE HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION IN UKRAINE (.pdf)(OHCHR)

A senior Palestinian official says Marwan Barghouti, a prominent Palestinian detainee, is being isolated and tortured by Israeli authorities. | Hussein al-Sheikh, the secretary-general of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), in a Monday post on X said Israeli authorities were endangering Barghouti’s life. Sheikh said Barghouti was being exposed to “isolation, torture and attempts to coerce, humiliate and beat him, putting his life in danger.”

💬 “We call on the international community, institutions and international organizations to intervene immediately and urgently in order to stop the repressive measures against our prisoners and our leaders in the occupation prisons, protect them, and release them immediately,” Sheikh said.

Barghouti, 64, has reportedly been beaten by Israeli guards in recent days. Last month, Israel’s far-right minister Itamar Ben Gvir said Barghouti had been placed in solitary confinement. Barghouti was a prominent leader in the first and second Intifadas. He has been behind bars for over two decades.

Juliette Touma, UNRWA's communications director, reports that released detainees from Israeli prisons showed signs of torture, expressing concern that some staff may have been coerced into making false confessions about the agency's alleged ties to Hamas ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/M4F10e3OOw

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) March 18, 2024

Jonathan Cook | Why is the same western media obsessively reheating five-month-old allegations against Hamas so reluctant to focus on Israel’s current, horrifying atrocities? | Hostages tortured to death. Parents executed in front of their children. Doctors beaten. Babies murdered. Sexual assault weaponised. No, not Hamas crimes. This is part of an ever-growing list of documented atrocities committed by Israel in the five months since 7 October – quite separate from the carpet bombing of 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza and a famine induced by Israel’s obstruction of aid. ● Last week, an investigation by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz disclosed that some 27 Palestinians seized off Gaza’s streets over the past five months are known to have died during interrogations inside Israel. Some were denied medical treatment. But most are likely to have been tortured to death. ● Three months ago, a Haaretz editorial warned that Israeli jails “must not become execution facilities for Palestinians”. Israeli TV channels have been excitedly taking viewers on tours of detention centres, showing the appalling conditions Palestinians are kept in, as well as the psychological and physical abuse they are subjected to. An Israeli judge recently called the makeshift cages in which Palestinians are held “unsuitable for humans”.

■ A Palestinian Boy Was Shot by Israeli Troops in Front of His Father, and Died in His Brother's Arms (Ha'Aretz)
■ UNICEF: ‘Israel’ Killed more than 13000 Children in Gaza (Alahed News)
■ Israeli forces raid Gaza al-Shifa hospital, open fire inside complex (PressTV)
■ New Crime against Health Institutions: “Israel” Raids Al-Shifa Hospital (Alahed News)
■ Several killed, wounded in IOF raid on al-Shifa hospital (Al Mayadeen)

Rights group advocates have warned that record numbers of Palestinian detainees are filling “Israeli” detention centers in light of the bloody onslaught on Gaza, stating that the inmates are subjected to “systemic abuse” and torture. 💬 “We are extremely, extremely concerned,” Tal Steiner, the executive director of the so-called “Public Committee Against Torture in ‘Israel’” [PCATI], told AFP news agency. ● “What we’re looking at is a crisis,” she said, adding that nine people have reportedly died behind bars since October 7 last year, when the “Israeli” military launched its unrelenting ground and aerial offensives against the besieged Gaza Strip. ● “There are almost 10,000 Palestinians in “Israeli” custody right now, ... a 200-percent increase from any normal year,” the activist pointed out, stressing that the situation has deteriorated dramatically since “Israel” waged the war on Gaza. ● “We’re seeing really widespread and systemic use of many, many tools in order to inflict torture and ill-treatment on Palestinians.

■ Iron bars, electric shocks, dogs and cigarette burns: How Palestinians are tortured in Israeli detention (03/12/24)
■ Israeli soldiers strip Palestinian woman naked in humiliating search (03/08/24)
■ Torture tactics 'Israel' uses to kill Palestinian prisoners: Report (02/21/24)
■ ‘Torture was severe’: Gaza doctor recounts ordeal in Israeli captivity (02/06/24)

Ahmed Aziz, Lubna Masarwa and Simon Hooper | Men detained by Israeli forces since the start of the war are returning to Gaza with harrowing accounts of mock executions, constant beatings and humiliating mistreatment | Palestinian men detained by Israeli forces since the start of the war in Gaza have told Middle East Eye how they were physically tortured with dogs and electricity, subjected to mock executions, and held in humiliating and degrading conditions. ● In testimonies to MEE, one man, who was taken by Israeli forces from a school in Gaza where he had sought refuge with his family, described how he had been handcuffed, blindfolded, and detained in a metal cage for 42 days. During interrogations, he said he had been given electric shocks, as well as scratched and bitten by army dogs. ● Other men also described being electrocuted, attacked by dogs, doused with cold water, denied food and water, deprived of sleep, and subjected to constant loud music. “They did not spare anyone. There were 14-year-old boys and 80-year-old men,” said one of the men, Moaz Muhammad Khamis Miqdad, who was taken prisoner in Gaza City in December and held for more than 30 days. As well as three men taken prisoner in Gaza, MEE spoke to a man detained in a raid in the West Bank city of Qalqilya who said he had been blindfolded, stripped naked, and hung by his arms during interrogations in which he was repeatedly beaten and burnt with cigarettes. He also described being held for days in freezing conditions in which he was not allowed to sleep and of a soldier urinating in a bottle and handing it to him after he had requested water. All four men described being forced to strip naked and being constantly beaten and abused by Israeli soldiers during their weeks-long detentions.

■ UNRWA staffers tortured by Israeli troops to falsely admit ‘Hamas links’ (MR Online)

The newly released UNRWA report illustrates a graphic picture of the violence and sexual abuse subjected upon Palestinian detainees in Israeli detention centers. | A new internal report by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA) details the violence against Palestinian detainees in Israeli detention centers, such as beatings, dog attacks, extended use of stress positions, and sexual assault. ● Based on interviews of over 1,000 Palestinian detainees released at the "Kerem Shalom" crossing point since December, in the presence of UNRWA staff, the report said that there were 29 children as young as six (26 boys and three girls), 80 women, and 21 UNRWA staff, some of whom had chronic conditions, such as Alzheimer’s or cancer.

■ The Battle Against Death in Gaza (Alahed News)
■ WHO: Children Starving to Death in Gaza (Alahed News)
■ UNRWA exposes disturbing Israeli abuse of Palestinian detainees — report (TRT World)
■ Live blog: Israel's carnage kills 30,717 Palestinians in Gaza as toll soars (TRT World)
■ At least 104 killed as Israeli forces target Gaza food aid queue (Daily Sabah)(Feb 29, 2024)

The Prisoners' and Ex-Prisoners' Affairs Committee has detailed in a new report all the methods of torture "Israel" utilizes to slowly and painfully kill Palestinian prisoners. | The Prisoners' and Ex-Prisoners' Affairs Commission revealed in a new report based on a visit its lawyer took to the "Gush Etzion" prison a few days ago, that almost 90% of the 105 Palestinian prisoners have been physically assaulted since the moment of detention until arrival at the prison. ● The Committee's lawyer described the catastrophic situation in the prison, emphasizing the overcrowded cells that force prisoners to sleep on the floor, as mattresses, clothing and blankets are unavailable. This is paired with the impossibility of shutting the window, as it is a space in the wall lined with metal bars, keeping the cell piercing cold. When it rains, water seeps into the cells, forming puddles where prisoners sleep. ● The torture tactics Israeli wardens use are further highlighted in the report. Prison wardens bang on the doors in the middle of the night to wake prisoners up and deprive them of sleep, and sometimes go as far as to force them out onto prison grounds, line them up, and keep them on foot for no reason. It is worth noting that no consideration for medical cases among prisoners is taken, as they are deliberately neglected. The report indicated that these are methods "Israel" uses to inflict slow and torturous deaths on Palestinian prisoners.

■ Khaled Shawish: 9th Palestinian killed in Israeli prisons in 4 months (Al Mayadeen)
■ Day 138: 29,313 martyred, 69,333 injured in Gaza (Al Mayadeen)

The Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor announced receiving new shocking testimonies from recently released Palestinian prisoners revealing that Israeli occupation army brought groups of Jewish settlers to detention centers and prisons to witness how detainees from the Gaza Strip are tortured, allowing many of them to film prisoners using their mobile phones. | The Jewish settlers enjoyed witnessing the torture rounds of Palestinian prisoners with all types of ill and inhumane treatment, the released detainees told Euro-Med Monitor. [...] The prisoners were detained for varying periods inside a detention center in Zikim military base on the northern border of the Gaza Strip, and another detention center near the Negev prison in the south, after they were rounded up in the Israeli occupation army’s ground incursions into the Strip. ● The Euro-Med explained that, according to the testimonies it received, groups of Jewish settlers, ranging from 10 to 20 people in each group, were allowed to watch and take photos of Palestinian prisoners who were held naked while being subjected to beating with metal batons and electric sticks by Israeli soldiers who poured hot water over their heads, amid verbal insults and threats in Arabic.

■ Suffering to Death: Mohammad Al-Sabbar 8th Palestinian Detainee Martyred behind ‘Israeli’ Bars since Oct.7
■ Settlers attended IOF 'nude torture' of detained Gazans: Euro-med (Al Mayadeen)
■ War on Gaza: The Discovery of a Mass Grave (02/10/24)
■ War on Gaza: Anger grows over viral image of wounded Palestinian stripped to underwear (02/07/24)
■ ‘Torture was severe’: Gaza doctor recounts ordeal in Israeli captivity (02/06/24)

The Palestinian Detainees and Ex-Detainess Affairs Committee and the Palestinian Prisoners' Club have confirmed the martyrdom of prisoner Mohammad Al-Sabbar, the eighth Palestinian to die in “Israeli” prisons since October 7. | The Committee and the Palestinian Prisoner's Club confirmed that Al-Sabbar, a 21-year-old from Al-Dhaheriya, Al-Khalil, was martyred in the “Israeli” “Ofer” prison. ● Al-Sabbar had been detained since May 2022 and has been deprived of medical treatment in the “Israeli” prison as he was suffering from health issues related to the stomach and intestines which required him to need treatment and specific dietary needs. ● A statement by both committees indicated that although he was arrested nearly 2 years ago, the brutality of the “Israeli” occupation forces was multiplied after October 7 and Al-Sabbar was denied essential treatment.

■ War on Gaza: Anger grows over viral image of wounded Palestinian stripped to underwear (02/07/24)
■ ‘Torture was severe’: Gaza doctor recounts ordeal in Israeli captivity (02/06/24)

Julian Assange will soon find out whether he will be granted a final appeal in the U.K. in his fight against extradition, or will soon face the cruel vengeance of the U.S., says Mary Kostakidis. | In Julian Assange’s extradition case, Magistrate Judge Venessa Baraitser determined he would not survive imprisonment in a U.S. Supermax facility – that he is very likely to commit suicide. ● One of the final witnesses in the 4 week extradition trial in 2020 was an American lawyer whose client Abu Hamza was held in ADX Colorado where Julian is likely to be sent. Abu Hamza has no hands. He was extradited from the U.K. following assurances by the U.S. that the prison system was able to deal with the special requirements of such a prisoner. ● His lawyer testified that despite assurances he would not be placed in total isolation, that is indeed where he was kept, under Special Administrative Measures, and the U.S. had also failed to delivered on other undertakings to protect his human rights – he did not have a toilet in his cell he could operate – he was stripped of all dignity, contrary to guarantees.