A video of several Palestinian men being held by Israel has surfaced on social media as violence continues in the area of Khan Younis and in the northern part of Gaza.
The BBC confirmed that the video depicts them in their pants, knelt on the ground, and under the protection of Israeli soldiers.
The males are said to have been taken into custody in the extreme northern region of the Gaza Strip, in Beit Lahia.
The BBC has been informed that a few of the men have been freed since then.
When questioned about the footage, an Israeli government spokeswoman informed the BBC that the men in custody were all of military age and that they had been “discovered in areas that civilians were supposed to have evacuated weeks ago”.
Numerous guys can be seen in the video lining up on a pavement; they seem to have been instructed to take off their shoes, which are strewn all over the place. They are being watched over by Israeli troops and armoured cars.
They are seen being driven by military trucks in other pictures. The detainees are being portrayed in Israeli media as surrendered Hamas fighters.
Another photograph, which the BBC has not yet confirmed, shows men kneeling in what looks to be a sizable pit of sand that has been bulldozed while wearing blindfolds.
Although spokesman Daniel Hagari stated on Thursday that “IDF fighters and Shin Bet officers detained and interrogated hundreds of terror suspects,” the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have not responded directly to the photographs.
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“During the previous 24 hours, a large number of them also handed themselves in to our forces. The information gleaned from their interrogations is used to carry on the combat.”
The prisoners were being held in Jabalia and Shejaiya in northern Gaza, which he described as “Hamas strongholds and centres of gravity,” according to Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy, who spoke with the BBC on Friday.
“We’re talking about military age men who were discovered in areas that civilians were supposed to have evacuated weeks ago,” he stated.
In order to “work out who indeed was a Hamas terrorist and who is not,” Mr. Levy continued, they would be questioned.
He highlighted that Israeli soldiers had conducted “close-quarter combat” with Hamas in the regions where the guys in custody had been discovered. They had been operating out of civilian buildings and “deliberately disguising themselves as civilians”.
Among those detained has been identified as well-known Palestinian journalist Diaa al-Kahlout, a correspondent for al-Araby al-Jadeed.
According to the Arabic-language news source, which also publishes in English under the name the New Arab, Mr. al-Kahlout was detained in Beit Lahia by Israeli soldiers together with his brothers, relatives, and “other civilians.”
Al-Araby al-Jadeed has denounced what it calls Mr. al-Kahlout’s “humiliating” incarceration on Thursday.
Soldiers “subjected them to invasive searches and humiliating treatment upon their arrest, prior to transporting them to undisclosed locations,” the report continued, forcing the men to take off their clothes.
The publication “implores the international community, watchdogs and defenders of journalists’ rights, and human rights organisations to denounce this continuous assault” by Israel on journalists operating within the region.
Regarding the reported detention of Mr. al-Kahlout, the BBC has questioned the IDF.
BBC
