Hundreds March for Palestinians Held in Israeli Jails

Palestinians hold up pictures of loved ones in Israeli custody at a rally in the West Bank city of Nablus called to protest recent reports of abuse and even torture © Zain JAAFAR / AFP
Palestinians hold up pictures of loved ones in Israeli custody at a rally in the West Bank city of Nablus called to protest recent reports of abuse and even torture © Zain JAAFAR / AFP
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Hundreds March for Palestinians Held in Israeli Jails

Palestinians hold up pictures of loved ones in Israeli custody at a rally in the West Bank city of Nablus called to protest recent reports of abuse and even torture © Zain JAAFAR / AFP
Palestinians hold up pictures of loved ones in Israeli custody at a rally in the West Bank city of Nablus called to protest recent reports of abuse and even torture © Zain JAAFAR / AFP

Hundreds of Palestinians marched to protest the treatment of prisoners held in Israeli jails on Saturday, following reports of abuse and even torture.

Relatives held up pictures of prisoners and waved Palestinian flags during separate demonstrations in Ramallah and Nablus in the occupied West Bank.

"Even if the whole world submits, we will not recognise Israel," chanted the protesters in Ramallah.

Thousands of Palestinians have been detained in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October, the United Nations human rights office said this week.

They have mostly been held in secret and in some cases subjected to treatment that may amount to torture, the OHCHR said in a report.

"For 10 months, we haven't known anything about our sons," Latifa Abu Hamid, a mother of four prisoners, all sentenced to life, told AFP.

"We want to check on them and see them. We want to know their situation... We want our sons."

According to the Prisoners Club, a Palestinian watchdog, about 9,700 Palestinians are currently in Israeli jails, including hundreds under administrative detention.

The NGO estimates that arrests have doubled since October 7 compared to the same period last year.

The OHCHR report said that since the October 7 Hamas attacks, thousands of Palestinians -- including medics, patients, residents and captured fighters -- have been taken from Gaza to Israel, "usually shackled and blindfolded".

"They have generally been held in secret, without being given a reason for their detention, access to a lawyer or effective judicial review," this week's OHCHR report said.

Testimonies for the report suggested that Israel had subjected prisoners to "a range of appalling acts, such as waterboarding and the release of dogs on detainees", UN rights chief Volker Turk said.

The UN report was released the day after Israeli military police questioned soldiers arrested on suspicion of sexually abusing a Palestinian detainee.

At the Ramallah demonstration, Umm Abdullah Hamed detailed how her brother, son and nephew had all been given multi-decade sentences.

"We feel like any family of a prisoner," Umm Abdullah Hamed, whose brother, son and nephew have all been sentenced to decades in prison, said at the Ramallah protest.

"We ask God Almighty to hasten their relief and freedom, God willing," she added.

 



At Least 8 People are Killed When Passenger Train Slams into Minibus in Egypt

Egyptians look at the crash of two trains that collided near the Khorshid station in Egypt's coastal city of Alexandria, Egypt August 11, 2017. REUTERS/Osama Nageb
Egyptians look at the crash of two trains that collided near the Khorshid station in Egypt's coastal city of Alexandria, Egypt August 11, 2017. REUTERS/Osama Nageb
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At Least 8 People are Killed When Passenger Train Slams into Minibus in Egypt

Egyptians look at the crash of two trains that collided near the Khorshid station in Egypt's coastal city of Alexandria, Egypt August 11, 2017. REUTERS/Osama Nageb
Egyptians look at the crash of two trains that collided near the Khorshid station in Egypt's coastal city of Alexandria, Egypt August 11, 2017. REUTERS/Osama Nageb

A train slammed into a minibus that was crossing the tracks in an unauthorized location in norther Egypt on Thursday, killing at least eight people and leaving 12 injured, the government said.

The deadly crash took place in the Suez Canal province of Ismailia, the health ministry said. More than a dozen ambulances were sent to the scene, Reuters reported.

The Egyptian railway authority said the passenger train was on its regular route when the collision occurred. The place where the minibus was crossing the railway tracks is not designated for crossing.

Local Egyptian news outlets said the victims, who included children, were all take to East Qantara Central Hospital. One child was reported to be in critical condition.

Train derailments and crashes are common in Egypt, where an aging railway system has also been plagued by mismanagement. Last October, a locomotive crashed into the tail of a Cairo-bound passenger train in southern Egypt, killing at least one person. In September, two passenger trains collided in a Nile Delta city, killing at least three people.

In recent years, the government has announced initiatives to improve its railways. President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said in 2018 that some 250 billion Egyptian pounds, or $8.13 billion, would be needed to properly overhaul the neglected rail network.