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.

 



Lebanon Marks Four Years since Port Blast as War Fears Loom

 A view shows the partially collapsed grain silos damaged in the August 4, 2020 Beirut port blast, as Lebanon prepares to mark the four-year anniversary of the explosion, in Beirut, Lebanon August 2, 2024. (Reuters)
A view shows the partially collapsed grain silos damaged in the August 4, 2020 Beirut port blast, as Lebanon prepares to mark the four-year anniversary of the explosion, in Beirut, Lebanon August 2, 2024. (Reuters)
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Lebanon Marks Four Years since Port Blast as War Fears Loom

 A view shows the partially collapsed grain silos damaged in the August 4, 2020 Beirut port blast, as Lebanon prepares to mark the four-year anniversary of the explosion, in Beirut, Lebanon August 2, 2024. (Reuters)
A view shows the partially collapsed grain silos damaged in the August 4, 2020 Beirut port blast, as Lebanon prepares to mark the four-year anniversary of the explosion, in Beirut, Lebanon August 2, 2024. (Reuters)

Lebanon on Sunday marks four years since a catastrophic explosion at Beirut's port killed more than 220 people, with fears of all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah hanging heavy over the grim commemoration.

Several marches are set to converge on the port in the afternoon to remember the victims and demand justice.

Nobody has been held responsible for the August 4, 2020 disaster -- one of history's biggest non-nuclear explosions -- which also injured at least 6,500 people and devastated swathes of the capital.

Authorities said the explosion was triggered by a fire in a warehouse where a stockpile of ammonium nitrate fertilizer had been haphazardly stored for years.

An investigation has stalled, mired in legal and political wrangling.

"The complete lack of accountability for such a manmade disaster is staggering," United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert said in a statement on Saturday.

"One would expect the concerned authorities to work tirelessly to lift all barriers... but the opposite is happening," she said, calling for "an impartial, thorough, and transparent investigation to deliver truth, justice, and accountability".

In December 2020, lead investigator Fadi Sawan charged former prime minister Hassan Diab and three ex-ministers with negligence, but as political pressure mounted, he was removed from the case.

His successor, Tarek Bitar, unsuccessfully asked lawmakers to lift parliamentary immunity for MPs who were formerly cabinet ministers.

In December 2021, Bitar suspended his probe after a barrage of lawsuits, while the powerful Hezbollah group has accused him of bias and demanded his dismissal.

But in January last year, he resumed investigations, charging eight new suspects including high-level security officials and Lebanon's top prosecutor, who in turn charged Bitar with "usurping power" and ordered the release of detainees in the case.

The process has since stalled again.

A judicial official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that Bitar would "resume his proceedings, starting next week" and intends to finish "the investigation and issue his indictment decision... by the end of the year".

Bitar will set dates for questioning defendants who have not yet appeared before him, according to the official.

If the public prosecutor's office or other relevant judicial officials fail to cooperate, Bitar "will issue arrest warrants in absentia" for the defendants, the official added.

Activists have called for a UN fact-finding mission into the blast, but Lebanese officials have repeatedly rejected the demand.

Prospects of further disaster loom over this year's anniversary, with Hamas ally Hezbollah and the Israeli army trading cross-border fire since the Palestinian group's October 7 attack that triggered the Gaza war and fears that an all-out conflict could engulf Lebanon.