March
9, 2024
An
unpublished report from UNRWA said some of its employees released from Israeli
detention were tortured into falsely stating that the agency has Hamas links
and that staff took part in the 7 October attacks, Reuters reported on 9 March.
The
testimonies are contained in a report by the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)
reviewed by Reuters and dated February 2024.
"Agency
staff members have been subject to threats and coercion by the Israeli
authorities while in detention and pressured to make false statements against
the Agency, including that the Agency has affiliations with Hamas and that
UNRWA staff members took part in the 7 October 2023 atrocities," the
report says.
The
report included allegations of abuse and torture in Israeli detention,
including severe physical beatings, waterboarding, and threats of harm to
family members.
Though
waterboarding is widely viewed as torture by human rights groups, the Reuters
report described Israeli actions only as "coercion" and
"pressure" to force detained Palestinians to make false statements.
In
addition to describing the torture of UNRWA employees, the report stated that
Israel has subjected Palestinian detainees more broadly to beatings,
humiliation, threats, dog attacks, and sexual violence. Some detainees have
also died after Israel denied them medical treatment, the report added.
UNRWA
communications director Juliette Touma said the agency planned to hand the
information in the 11-page, unpublished report to human rights investigators at
UN agencies and outside rights groups.
"When
the war comes to an end there needs to be a series of inquiries to look into
all violations of human rights," she said.
Amid
the torture and medical neglect, 27 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons
since the start of the war on 7 October.
Israel
has accused UNRWA employees of participation in the 7 October Hamas attack on
Israeli settlements and military bases. Israel provided no evidence for the
claim, but 16 countries, including the US, paused $450 million in UNRWA funding
in response, throwing its aid operations into crisis just as starvation was
beginning to grip Gaza.
Israel's
campaign against UNRWA is part of a broader campaign started years ago to
dismantle the agency, which helps keep the hope of Palestinian refugees
returning to their stolen lands and homes in what is now Israel alive.
Qassam
spox urges Palestinians to mobilize during Ramadan in defense of Al-Aqsa Mosque
Qassam Brigades
spokesman Abu Obeida on 8 March urged the Palestinian people to mobilize during
the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in defense of Al-Aqsa Mosque and stressed that
the resistance would not compromise on its main demands to reach a ceasefire deal
with Israel.
“While Muslims
around the world are preparing to welcome Ramadan, we have offered as a
sacrifice to Allah a cascade of pure blood and pure souls, greeting it with the
pinnacle of Islam's pride: jihad, steadfastness, and fighting in a time when
[true] men are rare," Obeida said, before calling on "all our people
in the West Bank, Al-Quds (Jerusalem), and the occupied 1948 lands to mobilize
and march towards the Al-Aqsa Mosque, stand firm there, and not allow the
occupation to impose its [policies in the holy site]."
The spokesman
for the Qassam Brigades – the armed wing of Hamas – highlighted that the group
“positively engaged with mediators” during recent ceasefire talks, showing
willingness to accomplish a prisoner exchange deal in exchange for “the
cessation of aggression against our people … the full withdrawal of the enemy,
the return of our displaced people, and the reconstruction of [Gaza].”
"Any
proposals that do not include these human principles are of no use or concern
to our people and Resistance. Nothing takes precedence over addressing the
wounds of our people, who are facing genocide due to their insistence on their
rights and defense of their land and sanctities," Abu Obeida said.
Egyptian-mediated
ceasefire talks fell apart on Thursday after Israeli officials rejected the
main demands made by Hamas.
Elsewhere in his
speech, the Qassam official confirmed that seven Israeli captives taken on 7
October were recently killed as a result of indiscriminate attacks conducted by
Tel Aviv inside Gaza. He also admonished western nations for their
unwillingness to stop the genocide taking place in Gaza.
“The
international community and its frail laws are designed to protect injustice,
oppression, and aggression [conducted] by the tyranny of ruthless power,
spearheaded by the US administration. Our people and Resistance understood this
equation early on. Hence, our people's Resistance and ongoing revolution
culminated in the 7 October epic, responding to the continuous aggression [that
has spanned for] decades,” Abu Obeida declared.
"Zionist
arrogance escalated with the rise of the most extremist and Nazi-like
government in the entity. Before 7 October, [Tel Aviv was preparing] for what
[it is doing] today in Gaza, the West Bank, and al-Quds, grounded in an alleged
Torah legacy openly calling for the burning, killing, and destruction of other
nations," he added, before underscoring that “[the international
community] adheres to the law of the jungle, where the so-called Security
Council convenes ... obstructing any, even formal, attempt to support the
oppressed and deter the aggressors.”
Abu Obeida then
highlighted that the Palestinian resistance has been fighting the Israeli
occupation “for decades, and now, on the hundred fifty-fourth day of Operation
Al-Aqsa Flood, we continue to [produce] immense losses inflicted upon the
desperate enemy, its criminal army, and mercenaries, both in terms of officers,
soldiers and their [armored] vehicles.”
He also pledged
that the Palestinian Resistance would continue to confront the Israeli
aggression until it ends, saying" "Israel will not gain any security
until it grants our people their rights and ends its occupation of land and
sacred sites."
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