Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari confirmed on Sunday that fierce fighting was taking place with gunmen in Jabalia and Shuja’iya in the northern Gaza Strip. He also commented on recently circulated footage of dozens of almost naked men in the hands of the Israeli army.
Hagari’s statements came as Israeli forces penetrated into militant strongholds and faced fierce resistance in Jabalia and the Shujaiya area in Gaza City, which are among the areas that are still populated despite orders issued weeks ago to evacuate the entire north, according to Reuters.
In the northern Strip, where Israel previously said its forces had largely completed their missions, residents also spoke of some of the heaviest fighting of the war so far.
Regarding shots of Palestinian men undressing, which were circulated during the previous days, Hagari said that those photos were taken in Jabalia and Shujaiya, and that some of these detainees were armed.
He added: “We stripped the detainees of their clothes in the northern Gaza Strip to make sure they were not booby-trapped,” as he put it.
On Sunday, the Times of Israel newspaper published video footage that it said was leaked from the northern Gaza Strip, showing one of the militants surrendering his weapon while he and dozens of Palestinians surrendered to the Israeli forces.
The video shows the man walking slowly in front of a tank, holding the rifle and magazine above his head, before placing them on the ground.
The other Palestinians, wearing only underwear like him, carry their ID cards and stand on the other side of the street from the tank, a soldier shouting orders in Arabic through a loudspeaker.
Other video clips in recent days showed groups of men detained in similar conditions, stripped or half-naked, blindfolded and handcuffed.
Men from a separate group of detainees released Saturday told The Associated Press they were beaten and deprived of food and water.
The Israeli spokesman considered that the images of the prisoners being stripped naked after their surrender in Gaza could not be repeated.
A few days ago, the Israeli Broadcasting Authority said that the Israeli army arrested dozens of men in the Gaza Strip and referred them to the competent authorities for investigation, noting that the aim of the investigation is to find out whether some of them belong to the Hamas movement.
On the other hand, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor website, commenting on the same footage, said that Israel arrested “dozens of Palestinian civilians after severely harassing them and completely stripping them of their clothes as a result of their siege for days inside two shelter centers in the town of Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip.”
Israel vowed to eliminate Hamas after armed fighters stormed the border fence and attacked towns in southern Israel on October 7. Israel says the attack killed 1,200 people and took 240 hostages to Gaza.
Gaza health authorities say about 18,000 people have been killed in Israeli attacks since then, with thousands more missing, believed to have died under the rubble. The numbers of dead and injured no longer include numbers from the northern parts of the Strip, which are beyond the reach of ambulances and where hospitals have stopped working.
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2023-12-10 18:44:25
