The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has slammed Israeli troops for making at least 100 detained men take their clothes off to their underwear in public.
The regime troops recorded videos of the captured men that were widely circulated on social media.
The videos, which were confirmed after it emerged on Thursday, show the men sitting on the street somewhere in northern Gaza as they are watched over by several troops.
Hamas on Friday condemned the stripping and urged international human rights groups to investigate the matter. “Stripping them of their clothes in a humiliating manner is a blatant Zionist crime to take revenge on our defenseless civilians as a result of the blows suffered by its soldiers and officers at the hands of Palestinian resistance men,” Izzat al-Risheq, a member of the Hamas political bureau said in a statement.
“We hold the occupation responsible for their lives and safety, and we call on all human rights and humanitarian institutions and organizations to intervene.”
It is unclear why these men were detained and where they were taken. An Israeli military spokesperson said they detain civilians to interrogate and check who is linked to Hamas and who is not. The spokesman did not speak directly about the video, but said hundreds of suspects have been interrogated so far and that many have surrendered in the past 24 hours.
Legal experts say treating detainees in this manner is a clear violation of international law.
Hundreds of Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank have been detained since Hamas launched its surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm on October 7 in response to the regime’s decades-long atrocities.
Israel has also killed more than 17,400 people, a considerable number of them women and children, in Gaza since that October day.