Monday, May 20

IDF Arrests Gazans Including Jouralist To Check “If” They Were Hamas Members; Detainees Stripped And Taken To Unknown Location

Edited by Fathimathu Shana
IDF Arrests Gazans Including Jouralist To Check "If" They Were Hamas Members; Detainees Stripped And Taken To Unknown Location

Humanitarian crisis in Gaza is getting inhumane, with more than 1.8 million innocent civilians being squeezed in to a piece of land which is as big as an airport, death toll mounting, health facilities crumbling, the genocidal war is revealing new dimensions of brutality as hours passes by.

While this is happening, the occupation force is practicing mass arrest of Gazans while they evacuate. Those detained were forced undress themselves and were subjected to humiliating searches. The location to which the detainees were taken was not disclosed by the occupation force.

In a footage shared by Jotam Confino, who is a Foreign Editor of Jewish News UK and freelancer for several other news outlets including BBC World, several of civilians of Gaza was stripped of their clothes and was seen sitting with their heads bowed. A picture showed such being taken away in a military vehicle. Mr. Confino claimed that it was the scene of “Israeli army arresting suspected members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza”.

 

 

Muhammad Shehada, a columnist at JD Forward, a Jewish news outlet, who also writes for Al Jazeera English and Haaretz.com, which is an Israeli based news outlet, said they are not Hamas members. He added that the detainees were civilians of Gaza and among them was “prominent journalist Diaa al-Kahlout from al-Araby TV”.

 

 

Mr. Shehada raised the question about whether “journalist ever bother to do the tiniest bit of fact checking & verification before amplifying propaganda”.

Italy Blumental, an Israeli military correspondent shared similar picture of several civilians, whom the occupation force has claimed to be Hamas members detained with their eyes covered and hands tied in the back. He said, “IDF spokesperson Hagari says this evening: Terrorists handed themselves over to IDF fighters”.

 

 

Kann News, an Israeli Broadcasting Cooperation has shared the same image and said the goal behind the arrest of men in Gaza while the occupation force advances to occupy the north Gaza was “to check if some of them are Hamas terrorists or operatives in the terrorist organization”.

 

 

Mr. Shehada said that Israeli media has admitted the men detained were not Hamas members but “random men and teenagers detained arbitrarily without charges, trial or legal counsel to “check *IF* some of them are Hamas terrorists”.

Meanwhile, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called for the immediate release of Mr. Kahlout.