RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories: The Palestinian Authority’s prisoners affairs minister on Monday accused Israel of waging an abusive “war of revenge” against Palestinian detainees since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
Accounts of alleged mistreatment including torture, rape and other sexual abuses in Israeli jails have all been denied by Israeli authorities.
“Israel has been waging a war of revenge against prisoners within the walls of prisons and detention centers since the first day of the decision to go to war against Gaza,” said the PA’s Prisoners’ Affairs Authority head Qadura Fares.
Speaking at a press conference in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, he added that Palestinian prisoners were treated as “hostages” and the mistreatment was part of the “pressure.”
The authority’s lawyer Khaled MaHajjna denounced abuses which he said he had been told of when he visited detained Gaza journalists Mohammed Arab and Tariq Abed at the Ofer detention center near Ramallah.
MaHajjna said he was told how guards forced one prisoner to “lay on his stomach naked and then a fire extinguisher tube was inserted into his buttocks and the fire extinguisher was turned on.”
He said he was told how other inmates had “electric prods” used on their bodies.
In parallel to increasing complaints by Palestinians, some Israeli rights groups are fighting for a court order to close Sde Teiman, a desert detention camp just for detainees during Israel’s war with militant group Hamas.
The Israeli military said it “rejects outright allegations concerning systematic abuse of detainees in the ‘Sde Teiman’ detention facility, including allegations of sexually abusing detainees.” It also said that it acts within international law.
The lawyer said prisoners were handcuffed when they ate and that meals consisted of 100 grams (3.5 ounces) of bread or tomatoes with some milk.
MaHajjna quoted Arab as saying that he saw one handcuffed prisoner die after being beaten for demanding medical treatment. He said about 100 detainees had diseases and wounds in desperate need of treatment.
He alleged that some prisoners had their hands bound before dogs were then set upon them.
Five Israeli rights groups have gone to court over conditions at Sde Teiman.
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), one of the five, said that the high court on Monday ordered the government to respond within three days to the original petition filed in May.
ACRI, Physicians for Human Rights, HaMoked, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel and Gisha have demanded the closure of Sde Teiman, saying that “severe violations of detainees’ rights” make imprisonment at the facility “unconstitutional and untenable.”
The government has not commented on the case.
According to the Palestinian Prisoners Club, around 9,600 Palestinians are in Israeli jails, including hundreds under administrative detention which allows the military to keep detainees for long periods without being charged or produced in court.
The war started with Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
The militants also seized 251 hostages, 116 of whom are still in Gaza including 42 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s military retaliation has killed at least 38,664 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.
Israel waging ‘war of revenge’ on Palestinian prisoners: PA minister
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Israel waging ‘war of revenge’ on Palestinian prisoners: PA minister
- Accounts of alleged mistreatment including torture, rape and other sexual abuses in Israeli jails have all been denied by Israeli authorities
Shots fired in Iraq security forces clash during pilgrimage
- The incident involved the Iraqi army and members of the Hashed Al-Shaabi
- The pre-dawn clash occurred about five kilometers from Karbala’s old city when four Hashed vehicles attempted to go through an Iraqi army roadblock
The incident involved the Iraqi army and members of the Hashed Al-Shaabi, mainly pro-Iran Shiite former paramilitaries integrated into the Iraqi security forces, an interior ministry official told AFP under cover of anonymity due to the issue’s sensitivity.
The pre-dawn clash occurred about five kilometers rom Karbala’s old city when four Hashed vehicles attempted to go through an Iraqi army roadblock on a street reserved for pedestrian pilgrims, the official said.
The army prevented the vehicles from passing although both sides fired weapons into the air without causing injuries, the official added.
At the time of the standoff and gunfire, hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims marking Arbaeen were converging on Karbala and the mausoleum of Imam Hussein, a founding figure of Shiite Islam and the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad.
Arbaeen marks the end of the 40-day mourning period for the killing of Imam Hussein by the forces of the caliph Yazid in 680 AD.
Last year 22 million pilgrims — many from Iran — attended Arbaeen, according to official figures.
The interior ministry official said six Hashed members were arrested by a security unit of their own institution after the incident.
A Hashed official confirmed the arrests.
“An investigation is ongoing to identify who was responsible for opening fire in the middle of pilgrims,” said the official, who asked not to be named because of the matter’s sensitivity.
The Hashed were created in 2014 to fight Daesh group jihadists whose advance the regular army failed to stop.
They remain a politically and militarily powerful group, some of whose fighters — despite their integration into Iraq’s security forces — periodically clash with other security institutions.
Since August 6 around 2.9 million pilgrims have entered Iraq for Arbaeen, according to official figures. Commemorations reach their peak on Sunday.
Lebanon central bank governor says ‘working hard’ to prevent grey-listing
- Being added to the Financial Action Task Force’s grey list would be another major blow to a country in financial tailspin since 2019
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s acting central bank governor said on Thursday that his institution was still striving to prevent being placed on a “grey list” of countries under special scrutiny by a financial crime watchdog.
Being added to the Financial Action Task Force’s grey list would be another major blow to a country in financial tailspin since 2019, with depositors still locked out of most of their pre-crisis savings and many foreign corresponding banks shunning Lebanon’s financial system.
Reuters first reported in May 2023 that Lebanon had received a preliminary evaluation warranting grey-listing, with gaps in several categories including its anti-money laundering measures, transparency on beneficial ownership of firms and legal assistance in asset freezing and confiscation.
After the initial assessment, Lebanon was granted a year to address those gaps before a final ruling that is set to be announced at the FATF’s plenary in October of this year.
“The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) will issue a decision this coming fall and we are still working hard to prevent Lebanon from being placed on the grey list,” acting central bank governor Wissam Mansouri said, addressing a meeting of the Union of Arab Banks in Beirut.
Mansouri said Lebanon had received low scores on measures to confiscate illicit wealth or address money laundering, and that the country needed to develop an action plan to address the remaining gaps.
In 2023, a diplomatic source and a financial source familiar with the matter said that the central bank’s special investigations commission was lobbying FATF member states in a bid to change the score.
Being put on the FATF grey list could disrupt a country’s capital flows, according to the International Monetary Fund, with banks cutting ties to customers in high-risk countries to reduce compliance costs.
Such a listing also risks reputational damage, credit ratings adjustments, trouble obtaining global finance and higher transaction costs.
In Lebanon’s case, the listing would represent an indictment of the financial system at a painful time. The country has been slow to make progress on key reforms requested by the IMF in April 2022 as prerequisites for a deal with the fund. The economy has slowed further after more than 10 months of hostilities between armed group Hezbollah and the Israeli military in parallel with the Gaza war.
Aid trucks trickle into Darfur as army pauses delivery ban
- The army had ordered aid agencies to stop use of the corridor in February, saying it was used to transport arms
KHARTOUM: A fraction of available aid has passed through the Adre border crossing from Chad into Sudan’s hunger-ravaged Darfur region this week following a move by the Sudanese army to temporarily lift a ban on deliveries.
The army’s rivals in the country’s devastating 16-month-old war control most of Darfur and the Adre crossing, the quickest way into the region. The army had ordered aid agencies to stop use of the corridor in February, saying it was used to transport arms, but last week rescinded that order temporarily for three months.
After 15 trucks had moved through the crossing, out of a total of 131 at the border, the Sudanese government “instructed no more movements until procedures received yesterday are agreed,” Justin Brady, head for the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Sudan, said on X late on Wednesday.
In a statement on Wednesday, the World Food Programme said that sorghum, pulses, oil and rice enough for 13,000 people had crossed on Tuesday evening, heading for Kreinik, West Darfur, one of 14 spots across the country experts say is at risk of famine.
But, the agency said, it had food for 500,000 ready to move. More than six million people face food insecurity across Darfur, and more than 25 million, or about half the population, across the country.
It was unclear if the food had reached Kreinik by Thursday. The RSF, which has looted aid trucks and warehouses on numerous occasions according to aid agencies, welcomed the deliveries in a statement late on Wednesday.
A document by the army-aligned Humanitarian Aid Commission showed that the procedures set by the government included the presence of Sudanese authorities and soldiers at Chadian warehouses and the border for inspections.
Israeli police arrest four suspected over settler attack on Palestinian village
- The Aug. 15 attack by dozens of settlers armed with guns and Molotov cocktails drew unusual condemnation from Israeli leaders
JERUSALEM: Israeli police arrested four people suspected of taking part in a violent attack by Jewish settlers on the Palestinian village of Jit in the occupied West Bank, during which one Palestinian was killed, authorities said on Thursday.
The Aug. 15 attack by dozens of settlers armed with guns and Molotov cocktails, drew unusual condemnation from Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who promised a swift investigation.
“This was a severe terror event that included setting fire to buildings and vehicles, stone and molotov-cocktail hurling, as well as live fire, resulting in the killing of one Palestinian and the injuring of another,” a statement by the police and the domestic security agency said.
The increasing incidence of settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war has drawn broad condemnation internationally, including from allies of Israel such as the United States.
Palestinians and rights groups regularly accuse Israeli forces of standing by while attacks by Jewish settlers against Palestinians take place and say the violence almost never results in prosecutions.
The United States and a number of European countries have imposed sanctions on violent settlers and called repeatedly on Israel to do more to curb the attacks.
The Israeli authorities said the four arrested included three adults and a minor who were suspected of several acts of terrorism against Palestinians.
The investigation was continuing, the statement said.
China urges citizens in Lebanon to leave ‘as soon as possible’
- Multiple nations have this month called for their citizens to leave Lebanon, where Hezbollah is based
Beijing: China on Thursday urged its citizens in Lebanon to leave “as soon as possible,” according to an embassy statement, the day after an Israeli strike in the country killed a senior Palestinian militant.
“Recently, the situation on the Lebanese-Israeli border has continued to be tense, and security circumstances in Lebanon are severe and complex,” China’s embassy in Beirut said.
“The current level of risk to travel in Lebanon’s South and Nabatieh Governorates is red (extremely high risk), and other areas is orange (high risk).”
The statement advised Chinese citizens in Lebanon to “take the opportunity while commercial flights are still running to return to China or leave the country as soon as possible.”
The Israeli strike in Lebanon on Wednesday killed Khalil Maqdah, described by the Palestinian Fatah movement as “one of the leaders” of its armed wing in the country.
The attack led to accusations by Fatah that Israel was trying to ignite a regional war.
It also came hours after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken ended a tour of the Middle East aimed at reaching a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
The killing of Maqdah marked the first time Israel has targeted a senior Fatah member in more than 10 months of cross-border clashes with Lebanese militants, mostly from Hezbollah, during the Gaza war.
Multiple nations have this month called for their citizens to leave Lebanon, where Hezbollah is based.
Thursday’s statement by the Chinese embassy represented a hike in urgency, following its calls earlier this month for citizens to “travel with caution” should they visit Lebanon.
