Israel launches widespread arrest campaigns in northern Gaza: Palestinian group

By Qais Abu Samra

RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA) – The Israeli army has launched widespread arrest campaigns against Palestinians in northern Gaza, the Palestinian Prisoner Society said on Wednesday.

“Hundreds of Gaza detainees are still being forcibly disappeared in Israeli occupation prisons and camps,” the NGO said in a statement.

The Israeli army has intensified a massive assault in northern Gaza amid a suffocating siege that has left tens of thousands of people without food and water.

The onslaught, which began on Oct. 5, was the latest episode in Israel’s brutal onslaught that has killed nearly 42,800 people, mostly women and children, and injured over 100,400 others since last year following a Hamas attack.

"Scenes emerging from northern Gaza are a new sign of the horror and crimes being committed there,” the society said.

Among the detainees are “dozens of women, children, and medical teams, who have been specifically targeted, along with hospitals, which have been a key target of the genocide,” it added.

“Some detainees were executed on the field, while others were subjected to continuous torture, abuse, and humiliation around the clock to this day,” the statement said.

The group said testimonies and statements gathered from released detainees showed “shocking and horrifying details, including crimes of starvation, medical neglect, and torture.”

The Israeli onslaught on Gaza has displaced almost the territory’s entire population amid an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its actions in Gaza.

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala