'They wanted to humiliate us': Palestinian women allege abuse in Israeli custody
Nabela thought the United Nations school in Gaza City was a safe haven. Then, the Israeli army arrived.
Soldiers stormed the place, ordering men to undress and hauling women to a mosque for strip searches, she said. So began six weeks in Israeli custody that the Palestinian woman says included repeated beatings and interrogations.
“The soldiers were very harsh, they beat us and screamed at us in Hebrew,” said the 39-year-old from Gaza City, who spoke on condition that her last name not be used for fear of arrest. “If we raised our heads or uttered any words, they beat us on the head.”
One woman detained from Gaza, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, told the AP news agency that before she was moved to Israel's Damon Prison, Israeli forces ordered her to kiss an Israeli flag. When she refused, a soldier grabbed her by the hair, smashing her face into a wall, she said.
Another woman, whose name was redacted, said she was urinated on by guards at Ketziot Prison in southern Israel. She also witnessed strip searches where guards forced naked detainees to stand close to each other and inserted search devices into their buttocks.
It's not known how many women or minors have been detained by Israeli forces, though male detainees have also alleged widespread physical abuse.
Rights groups say Israel is “disappearing” Palestinians - detaining them without charge or trial and not disclosing to family or lawyers where they’re held.
Israel’s prison service says all “basic rights required are fully applied by professionally trained prison guards.”
Its military said it makes detainees undress to search for explosives, bringing detainees into Israel before releasing them back into Gaza if they're deemed innocent.
Many gunshot wounds after aid convoy bloodshed - UN
A United Nations team has documented "a large number of gunshot wounds" among those still being treated for injuries following a rush on an aid convoy in Gaza.
At Gaza City's al-Shifa Hospital, the international observers saw some 200 people injured in Thursday’s deadly incident that happened as Palestinians sought aid from a humanitarian convoy.
Hamas says Israeli forces fired upon the crowd. Israel claims they died in a stampede.
On Friday, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that Shifa reportedly received more than 700 injured people and more than 70 dead bodies after the bloodshed.
With the famine looming in the Gaza Strip, desperate Palestinians have mobbed and looted aid convoys in recent weeks.
Rights groups and international organisations have accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war, obstructing the delivery of essential resources, hindering humanitarian aid and destroying key infrastructure that supplies of food and water depend on.
Biden: US will begin airdrops of humanitarian aid into Gaza
The US president said on Friday that his country would begin air-dropping humanitarian assistance into Gaza.
Joe Biden's announcement came a day after witnesses said Israeli troops shot at crowds of Palestinians racing to pull good off an aid convoy, leading to scores of deaths.
The US leader said the airdrops will begin in the “coming days.”
At least 115 Palestinians were killed on Thursday and more than 750 others were injured, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Israel said its troops fired at some in the crowd who they believed moved toward them in a threatening way.
