GAZA, (PIC)
Following the Israeli ground incursion into the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army launched widespread arrest campaigns against civilians in revenge abusive operations against detainees, women, children, and the elderly.
One of the tragic stories of arrest is the case of the 39-year-old Mrs. R.H., a mother of three children from Beit Lahia, now displaced in the city of Rafah.
The Palestinian mother narrates that she was moving along with her children, including a sick child, between displacement centers until she finally settled in Al-Fakhoura School, which is affiliated with UNRWA and yet was bombed leaving a large number of women and children as martyrs, including her brother’s wife and children.
The mother was concerned over the fate of her children, so she took refuge in another UNRWA school, but it was not spared from the bombing. She fled with her three children towards a refugee camp in Rafah, but Israeli occupation forces at the checkpoint on Salah al-Din Road arrested her and ordered her to leave her children behind, despite that their ages are from 5 to 13 years old.
Harsh investigation
Speaking to the PIC, the mother said, “They took me, tied me up, searched me, and blindfolded me. An investigator came and started interrogating me. He asked me my name, then he started asking about Hamas and wanted to know if anyone in my family belonged to it.”
“They transferred me with another detained woman to more than one place, and when the interrogation began, they forced us to undress and to wear pajamas with no underwear. Then they transferred us to a detention center called Ann Tod. It took us approximately 8 hours to reach the place”, she added.
Journey of torture
The two detained women spent eight days under harsh investigation where they had been humiliated, assaulted, and hit on the face with shoes.
The released prisoner R. H. says, “during investigation time, they made me fully undress. I was subjected to sexual harassment by female soldiers while stripping us of our clothes, while male soldiers were watching. They were handcuffing our legs while mocking us, swearing obscene insults, and giving us bad signs of harassment.”
“I stayed in prison for 45 days while I was handcuffed. Some of the detained women were harassed by touching their bodies. We were also forced to remove our head covers all the time”, she added.
“They were provoking us and making us drink only from the contaminated tap water, so many detained women began to suffer from colic, sore throat, severe constipation, and stomach pain.”
The freed prisoner confirmed that the Israeli occupation jailers prohibited them from raising their voices amid escalated torture including tightening handcuffs around the hands of those who complained, adding that the prisoners suffered the most from depriving them of food and water.
One form of torture during investigation, the freed women said, was “forcing us to bend on the ground and have female soldiers climb on our backs or an obese female soldier fall on us.”
“We were dying of the cold, and no one was caring about us. They were depriving us of even using toilet tissues and we were urinating on ourselves, before they allowed us to go to the toilet, not to mention the insults and threats,” they said, adding, “they were threatening me by saying, We will deprive you of your children and brothers”, she added.
The freed prisoner, R.H., was released after 44 days she spent in prison during which she was transferred to another prison which included many soldiers, where she spent one night. The next day, she was sent with other female prisoners to Karm Abu Salem crossing under gunfire until they reached Al-Taif School in Rafah.
She concluded by saying, “Immediately upon my arrival, I left everything and went out looking for my three children until someone recognized me and told me that someone took them to Al-Nuseirat camp. Then I met them at Al-Quds Open University. I could not believe it, so I started screaming and hugging them tightly because I was very worried about them.”
An elderly woman: They handcuffed me and assaulted me
Cases of arrest and torture are not confined to a specific age group; rather everyone is targeted without distinction. The elderly Um Muhammad whose hands show marks of being shackled during her detention as she was arrested last January. She confirmed that she was handcuffed and assaulted, contrary to the Israeli forces’ claim of providing her with medical care.
After spending several days while handcuffed all the time in Israeli custody, Um Muhammad is now receiving treatment for health complications in the European Gaza Hospital in the city of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip.
During her period of detention, the elderly Palestinian woman was trying in vain to loosen her chains while she was held outdoors in cold weather.
Regarding her harsh experience at the hands of the Israeli occupation army, Um Muhammad told Anadolu Agency, “I was arrested with many citizens from Ma’n area, east of Khan Yunis. I remained in custody deprived of food and subjected to beating.”
The elderly Palestinian woman does not remember the exact day of her arrest, nor the exact number of days she was detained. However, the period ranged between 11 and 12 days, according to her statement.
False narrative
On January 26, the Israeli occupation army published a video clip on X, showing imagery of the elderly Palestinian woman, who was on an ambulance accompanied by Israeli soldiers. The occupation army spokesman then claimed they had dealt with her humanely and saved her “from what the resistance had done to her!”
The Israeli occupation army’s spokesman, Avichay Adraee, claims that Israeli occupation forces found the elderly Palestinian woman handcuffed by Hamas Movement’s members, in military uniforms, who handcuffed her two days ago and ordered her to say that “Our soldiers did that!”, adding, “Our forces provided medical treatment to the old woman before setting her free.”
However, the story of the old woman came to refute these allegations by emphasizing that the Israeli occupation army is only trying to improve its image before the public opinion through lies, quickly refuted by proven facts. The most horrific stories are of those who are still suffocated under the debris of the buildings destroyed on top of its residents in one of the cruelest genocidal wars witnessed in the world.
