Israel has released 20 Palestinian prisoners captured during the Israeli attack on Gaza, which the United Nations (UN), International Court of Justice (ICJ), UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRAW), the Arab League, and other groups on globe described as a genocidal operation. These bodies, with the international protests worldwide, have demanded urgent retribution for Israel’s campaign that has murdered thousands of innocent civilians, mostly children, and women, and arrested thousands under grossly inhuman conditions.
Israel has released detainees who are highly emaciated and distraught. Detainees, including some civilians and children, as well as healthcare workers, were brought to the European Hospital in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis and given emergency medical care. Doctors at the hospital said there was physical abuse and trauma consistent with severe mistreatment, reflecting grim conditions reportedly endured by thousands still held in Israeli detention facing severe torture.
Such operations, according to human rights groups, have opened another new phase of ethnic cleansing whereby the world has been shocked following the Israeli attacks since October 7, 2023. Thousands of Palestinian children, women, and civilians have been killed by these attacks, which were accompanied by detentions and continued detention in jail without any due process.
Many of the former detainees report experiencing brutal beatings, sleep deprivation, and brutal torture while in detention. Calls have also come forth from the UN and other international agencies asking Israel to respect the world’s law and to desist from impunity acts that belie gross violations of human rights and international conventions on the handling of detainees.
In recent months, several senior Israeli government officials have denounced UNRWA, with a former ambassador describing the agency as “a Palestinian organization fully committed to the Jewish State’s destruction.” The day before the vote, one of the politicians behind the bills was reported saying that UNRWA “is educating kids to hate Israel and spreading antisemitism.”
According to the United Nations, At a briefing to the Security Council that month, the Commissioner-General of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, explained that the agency is the “backbone” of the entire aid operation in Gaza in the face of an “insidious campaign” by Israeli authorities to push it out of occupied Palestinian Territories.
Israel banned UNRAW, denying this agency’s essential humanitarian supply to Palestinian victims (mostly children and women) of Israeli genocide, and further casting a dark shadow over their lives in the region. As a result, Israel denied Palestinian refugees the minimum resources, such as food, medical care, and education, further exacerbating the dilemma of civilians desperately in need of relief. The action, roundly condemned by various human rights organizations, was described as part of Israel’s larger scheme to dismantle global support for Palestinian welfare and further isolate the population under draconian conditions.
“Gaza is becoming a graveyard for children. Hundreds of girls and boys are reportedly being killed or injured every day.”
– UN Secretary-General António Guterres
According to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, “More journalists have reportedly been killed over a four-week period than in any conflict in at least three decades. More United Nations aid workers have been killed than in any comparable period in the history of our organization.” Al-Jazeera journalist Hamza also lost his life during coverage of the Israeli attack on Palestine.
Despite international yell over alleged abuses, Israel has yet to publicly acknowledge them, which rights advocates criticized as part of a calculated campaign to further isolate and destabilize the Middle East region and the Palestinian population. According to Middle East Eye Releasing 20 detainees does little to address severe human rights violations inflicted on the Gaza population during recent brutal Israeli military strikes, on Palestinian civilians, (mostly children, and women).
The Arab League, among several human rights organizations, has labeled this Israeli military attack as a genocidal policy to remove the Palestinian people from the region. The international community has demanded accountability and addressed their proposal suggesting a UN-led inquiry into accusations of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The international community continues mobilizing for urgent intervention, stressing that negligence to address these horrors may create long-term implications for international human rights standards.
For the families of those imprisoned, this latest release means a small, inadequate gesture in the midst of the tremendous devastation that continues to claim lives in Gaza. Advocates argue that sustained international pressure needs to be maintained to prevent what many have described as an organized and conscious attempt to dismantle the Palestinian people’s fundamental rights and sovereignty.
