\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThe staggering number of men, women, children, doctors, journalists and human rights defenders detained since 7 October, most of them without charge or trial and held in deplorable conditions, along with reports of ill-treatment and torture and violation of due process guarantees, raises serious concerns regarding the arbitrariness and the fundamentally punitive nature of such arrests and detention,\u201d said UN Human Rights Chief Volker T\u00fcrk, whose Office released the report.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe testimonies gathered by my Office and other entities indicate a range of appalling acts, such as waterboarding and the release of dogs on detainees<\/strong>, amongst other acts, in flagrant violation of international human rights law and international humanitarian law,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The report by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) details the treatment of medical staff, patients and residents fleeing the conflict, as well as captured fighters taken from the enclave, the occupied West Bank and Israel, since Hamas-led terror attacks on southern Israel sparked the war.<\/p>\n At least 53 Palestinian detainees have died in Israeli military facilities and prisons since 7 October.<\/p>\n \u201cThey do not know if those detained are alive or dead,\u201d<\/strong> said the report\u2019s authors, recounting the experience of family members whose mainly male relatives have been taken away \u201cusually shackled and blindfolded\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) from various parts of Gaza. \u201cThey have not heard anything about their fate or wellbeing since then.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Of those arrested in Gaza \u2013 including staff from the UN agency providing assistance to Palestine refugees, UNRWA – \u201cmany were taken into custody while sheltering in schools, hospitals and residential buildings, or at checkpoints during the forced displacement of large numbers of Palestinians from north to south Gaza<\/strong>,\u201d the report notes. \u201cIn most cases, men and adolescent boys were detained, although women, including a woman over 80 years of age and with Alzheimer\u2019s disease and girls without any apparent link to armed groups, have also been detained.\u201d<\/p>\n The OHCHR dossier was compiled by means of interviews with released Palestinian detainees as well as monitoring and analysis conducted by the OHCHR office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.<\/p>\n It contains testimonies of men held in Gaza by the IDF, including UNRWA staff members who claim that they were \u201cforced by IDF soldiers to enter tunnels and buildings in Gaza ahead of soldiers\u201d.<\/p>\nUnlikely targets<\/strong><\/h2>\n
In harm\u2019s way<\/strong><\/h2>\n