CORRECTS Palestinian rights groups call for ending Israel’s ‘enforced disappearance’ of Gazans

UPDATES DEATH TOLL, CHANGES HEADLINE

By Awad al-Rujoub

RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA) – Palestinian human rights organizations have called for ending Israel’s “enforced disappearance” of hundreds of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.

“We demand an end to the enforced disappearance of hundreds of detainees from Gaza, including dozens of women,” the rights groups said in a joint statement on Monday.

According to the organizations, the Israeli army is arresting Palestinians in mass from their homes or shelters, especially in the northern Gaza Strip.

“The detainees are being forced to strip off their clothes and to stand in queues in an insulting manner before being taken to unknown locations,” the statement said.

On Sunday, the Palestinian Prisoner Society said Israeli prison authorities are holding 142 Palestinian women, including infants.

The organizations, including the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, called for intervention to reveal the names and fate of the detainees as well as to stop abuses and torture while arbitrarily arresting Palestinians in Gaza.

They also appealed to international human rights organizations to pressure Israeli authorities to release the arbitrarily arrested Palestinians.

On Monday, eyewitnesses told Anadolu that the Israeli army had stormed a number of schools in the Al-Faluja area of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, kicked out the women and children and arrested the men.

Israel has bombarded the Gaza Strip from the air and land, imposed a siege and mounted a ground offensive in retaliation for a cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7.

At least 18,412 Palestinians have been killed and 50,100 others injured in the Israeli onslaught since then, according to Gaza’s health authorities.

The Israeli death toll in the Hamas attack stood at 1,200, according to official figures.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar