Israeli forces have detained 142 Palestinian women and children during their ground offensive in the Gaza Strip, including nursing infants and the elderly, two rights groups announced on Sunday.
The information was revealed in a joint statement issued by the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society and the Palestinian Authority Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs.
The detainees are reportedly being held at several incarceration facilities, including Damon and Hasharon prisons.
Israeli authorities have not commented yet on the statement.
“Many of those detained have been rounded up by Israeli forces while fleeing south or during raids in the north, friends and family said in more than a dozen interviews,” The Washington Post reported, adding that “Some were held for hours, outside or in metal trailers, and released. Others have disappeared.”
An elderly Palestinian woman, who had gone viral for saying that she was “older than Israel” in a video circulating online, was killed by an Israeli sniper.https://t.co/lrv3JCvoUD pic.twitter.com/mQl3gyI7TI
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) December 8, 2023
“Israeli authorities have not said how many people they’ve detained, the legal grounds or where they’re being held, including whether in Gaza or in Israel,” according to the American newspaper.
According to the Washington Post, the Israeli army “referred questions to the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service. The Shin Bet did not respond to requests for comment.”
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 17,997 Palestinians have been killed and 49,229 in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7. Palestinian and international estimates say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
