UN aid agency investigators allege abuse of Gazans in Israeli detention

An unpublished investigation by the United Nations’ main agency for Palestinian affairs accuses Israel of abusing hundreds of Gazans captured during its war with Hamas, according to a copy of the report reviewed by The New York Times.

The report was prepared by UNRWA, the UN agency that is itself at the center of an investigation following allegations that at least 30 of its 13,000 employees took part in the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7. The report’s authors claim that the detainees, including at least a thousand civilians who were later released without charge, were held at three military sites in Israel.

According to the report, the detainees included men and women ranging in age from 6 to 82. Some died in detention, the report said.

The document includes accounts from detainees who said they were beaten, stripped naked, robbed, blindfolded, sexually assaulted and denied access to lawyers and doctors, often for more than a month.

The draft document describes “a range of abuses that Gazans of all ages, abilities and backgrounds reportedly face in makeshift detention centers in Israel.” Such treatment, the report concluded, “was used to extract information or confessions, to intimidate and humiliate, and to punish.”

The report is based on interviews with more than 100 of the 1,002 prisoners who were released back to Gaza in mid-February. The document estimates that 3,000 other Gazans remain in Israeli detention without access to a lawyer. The findings are consistent with those of several Israeli And Palestinian rights groups, as well as separate investigations by two UN Special Rapporteursall alleging similar abuses within Israeli detention centers.

The Times could not fully confirm the allegations in the report. But parts of it match the testimonies of former Gaza prisoners interviewed by The Times.

One of those detainees, Fadi Bakr, 25, a law student from Gaza who provided documentary evidence that he was detained in Israel, told The New York Times that he was brutally beaten during his detention at three makeshift Israeli military sites.

Mr Bakr said he was captured in Gaza City on January 5 and released in early February. He said that while held in a detention center near Beersheba, southern Israel, he was beaten so severely that his genitals turned blue and therefore there was still blood in his urine.

Mr Bakr also told The Times that the guards made him sleep naked in the open, next to a fan blowing cold air, and played music so loudly that his ear bled. Mr. Bakr said he was released after the military appeared convinced he had no ties to Hamas.

Israel has said the detentions were necessary to track down and interrogate Hamas members after the group’s attack on southern Israel, which Israeli authorities say killed about 1,200 people and led to the kidnapping of some 250 others. Israel says hundreds of Hamas members have been captured.

Presented with the findings listed in a draft of the report, the Israeli military said in a statement that some detainees had died in detention, including those who had pre-existing illnesses and wounds, without providing more details, and said each death was investigated by the military police. The military said all abuse was “absolutely prohibited” and strongly denied any allegations of sexual abuse, adding that all “concrete complaints of inappropriate behavior will be forwarded to the relevant authorities for assessment.”

The Israeli military statement said that medical care was readily available to all detainees and that the mistreatment of detainees “violates IDF values.”

The army said its soldiers acted “in accordance with Israeli and international law to protect the rights of the detainees.” It also said it played music at only a “low volume” to prevent detainees from communicating with each other before interrogations.

The UNRWA researchers interviewed more than 100 prisoners who were released without charge through the Kerem Shalom crossing on the Gaza border. Their findings were then shared with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The rights office declined to comment. UNRWA confirmed the existence of the report but said its wording was not yet ready for publication.

The agency’s role in its creation is likely to increase scrutiny of the report’s conclusions. Israel has long accused the organization of operating under the influence of Hamas, indoctrinating Gazans with anti-Israel propaganda and turning a blind eye to Hamas’ military activities – all claims UNRWA denies.

Israel says at least 30 UNRWA employees played an active role in the Hamas-led attack on Israel or its aftermath, an accusation that has prompted nearly 20 countries and institutions to suspend their funding, putting into question the future of the organization is called into question. UNRWA fired a number of employees and another United Nations department opened an independent investigation.

According to the report, the detainees include individuals with Alzheimer’s disease, intellectual disability and cancer. The report said many had been captured from northern Gaza while sheltering in hospitals and schools or trying to flee south. Others were Gazans with permits to work in Israel who were stranded and later detained in Israel after the war began.

According to the report, some detainees told UNRWA researchers that they had often been beaten on open wounds, held in painful stress positions for hours and attacked by military dogs. Many of the details match stories recently released inmates reported directly to The New York Times.

Both male and female inmates reported incidents of sexual abuse, the report said. Some male detainees said they had been beaten on their genitals, the report said. Some women said they experienced “inappropriate touching during searches and as a form of intimidation while blindfolded,” the report said. It added that some reported being forced to undress in front of male soldiers during searches and being unable to cover themselves.

Rights lawyers say locating the prisoners in the Israeli system is difficult, and they describe the situation as a form of incommunicado detention. below legislation passed Since the start of the war, detainees captured in Gaza have not had the right to a lawyer for up to 180 days.

Lawyers for HaMoked, an Israeli rights group, said they managed to briefly reach some Gaza detainees by phone, almost by accident, after calling a military base in Jerusalem and asking if the detainees happened to be on the base.

Bilal Shbair contributed reporting from Rafah, Gaza; Rawan Sheikh Ahmad from Haifa, Israel; And Gabby Sobelman from Rehovot, Israel.