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ISRAEL-GAZA WAR

Palestinians recount ‘torture’ in army custody
AFP, Rafah
Palestinians held by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip had suffered torture, two freed detainees and a medic said Sunday, a charged denied by the military.
The two men were among hundreds detained by Israeli forces over alleged links with Hamas during Israel’s ongoing ground offensive in the besieged Hamas-run territory.
About 20 men released from Israeli custody “have bruises and marks of blows on their bodies”, Marwan al-Hams, hospital director in the southern city of Rafah, told AFP.
Hams said the freed Palestinians were admitted to Al-Najjar hospital upon their release. The Israeli army rejected the claims, saying detainees are “treated in accordance with international law”.
“While detained, the suspects are given sufficient food and water and treated according to protocol,” the army told AFP in a statement.
Nayef Ali, 22, said he was detained in Gaza City’s eastern Zaitun suburb and later taken to an Israeli detention facility, and showed cuts on his wrists and other parts of his body.
“They (Israeli troops) tied our hands behind our backs for two days,” he said.
“We were not allowed to eat or drink, neither were we allowed to use the toilet,” he added. “There were only beatings and beatings.”
Ali said the detainees were put in an area along the border with Israel where it was “freezing cold”.
“They threw cold water on us before transferring us to a prison, where it was again torture and beatings.”
Khamis al-Bardini, 55, also alleged torture by Israeli soldiers, saying they poured “cold water on our heads through the night” along with “beatings during the day”.
In recent weeks, the army has faced international criticism after viral footage of detainees stripped down to their underwear and blindfolded with their hands tied behind the backs.
The army has said it was investigating the deaths of “terrorists in military detention centres” after Israeli media reported that several detainees had died in custody.
The war has heightened tensions across the Middle East, where Israel faces a range of enemies -- Iran-backed armed groups in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen that have voiced support for Hamas.
Cross-border fire has erupted almost daily between Israel and Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah movement.
And Yemen’s Huthi rebels have fired at cargo vessels in the Red Sea, leading the United States to build a naval taskforce to deter the missile and drone strikes.
Iran yesterday rejected US accusations that a drone strike targeting a Japanese-owned chemical tanker off the coast of India had been fired from its territory.
“Such claims are aimed at... covering up for the full support of the American government for the crimes of the Zionist regime (Israel) in Gaza,” said foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani.
Nassem Mohra, a 10-year-old kidney patient, fears he may never see his family again after Israeli forces arrested his father while he was taking the boy to a hospital in southern Gaza for urgent dialysis treatment, reports Reuters.
A neighbour brought Nassem, who needs regular dialysis treatment, to Abu Yousef Al Najjar hospital in Rafah on Sunday after the boy was separated from his relatives amid continued heavy Israeli bombardment of Gaza.
“I am afraid to die before seeing my family and relatives, and my siblings,” Nassem said, hooked up to a dialysis machine. “I want the war to end so we can go back to our homes and I will be back to my normal life,” he said, adding he had not seen his mother in weeks.
The neighbour, Adel Haniyeh, said he had been travelling south through Gaza with his own children when he recognised Nassem and agreed to take care of him. The boy’s father had been arrested at an Israeli army checkpoint, he said.
“The boy is in a bad condition. He needs special food, his situation is very bad. We sleep at a mosque, and we come here (daily) on donkey carts,” Haniyeh said, describing how they had to wait in line for hours to access the dialysis treatment.
The Palestinian Red Crescent has said Israeli bombardment of main roads across Gaza has seriously hindered the passage of ambulances and other emergency vehicles.
Doctors at the hospital in Rafah, near the Egyptian border, said fuel shortages and insufficient medical supplies were making working conditions there very difficult.