Images shared online by Israeli soldiers showing naked, handcuffed and blindfolded people detained in the Gaza Strip could violate international law, experts say. The matter provides that prisoners should not be subjected to unnecessary humiliation or public curiosity.
In this sense, the President of the United Nations-established Advisory Board on Matters Relating to Defense Lawyers of the International Criminal Court Mechanism said, Mark Ellis, has told the BBC that the videos reviewed by the British group may violate accepted standards for the treatment of prisoners of war. “The idea of parading people around in their underwear, filming them and sending them to the press would undoubtedly violate that principle,” he says.
The above images show battle scenes and soldiers searching houses abandoned by their residents. One of these videos shows Israeli soldiers dressed as dinosaurs throwing weapons; In another, they show how they set up a pizzeria in an empty Palestinian house. However, the BBC specifically cites eight videos that were publicly broadcast by men who are or were active soldiers and who did not conceal their identities, documenting the mistreatment of Palestinian detainees.
The British company has taken over some images uploaded to the Israeli soldier’s YouTube channel Yossi Gamzoo Letova last December 24th. This user, who has posted several videos from Gaza since early December containing images of his force, which he identifies as the 932 Granite Battalion, part of the Israeli army’s Nahal Brigade, shows a naked Palestinian prisoner bleeding with his hands tied he sat on a chair during the interrogation. According to the BBC, the admission takes place at Gaza College, a school in the north of the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli Defense Forces claim the photo was taken during a field interrogation. “The suspect was not injured. A reservist photographed and published the image, contrary to IDF orders and values. “It was recently decided to end his service in the reserves,” the army said.
That soldier posted another video on YouTube the same day showing hundreds of Palestinian prisoners gathered at Yarmouk Stadium in Gaza. Most of those seen in the video are stripped down to their underwear. Some kneel on the ground, blindfolded, in neat rows as Israeli soldiers look on.
At one point, a group of three imprisoned women appear kneeling and blindfolded behind a soccer goal with an Israeli flag hanging above it. Yossi Gamzoo Letova removed the videos from YouTube after the BBC contacted the IDF. But they are not the only leaked images, nor the only platform used by Israeli soldiers.
Another common medium is the social network TikTok. The philosopher Kosher handlethe Tel Aviv University professor who helped draft the Israeli army’s first code of conduct argued that sharing images of half-naked people violated the IDF’s code of ethics.