Activists seek probe as Palestinians stripped, humiliated by Israel

Minority and civil rights organisations are demanding an international probe into an online video purportedly showing hundreds of Palestinian civilians -- including the disabled, women, the elderly, and even a baby -- most of them stripped to their underwear and paraded in a captured Gaza stadium.

The local news agency Quds Network reports that an Israeli photographer embedded with the army captured the video, set to upbeat music.

The footage depicts a naked man in a wheelchair in the stands, at least two children standing with their arms raised alongside other men, and, towards the end of the clip, an Israeli soldier holding a Palestinian baby wrapped in a blanket.

It also shows that Israeli tanks bulldoze a section of the stadium transformed into a detention camp, where Palestinian detainees are compelled to walk, holding their ID cards above their heads.

They are then subjected to sitting in the cold, with their hands handcuffed behind them, while Israeli soldiers patrol the area.

"It's against the international law. And in fact, it's considered one of the high crimes in international law because it's against The Convention against Torture," Hassan Jabareen, the general director of Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, told TRT World.

"This is considered cruel and inhumane treatment against people, against those men and those babies."

International humanitarian law mandates the humane treatment of all prisoners of war.

The act of humiliating and disseminating degrading images of prisoners might constitute a breach of the Geneva Conventions, which stipulates that prisoners of war "shall at all times be humanely treated and protected, particularly against acts of violence, from insults, and from public curiosity."

Israel often asserts that it strips prisoners to uncover hidden weapons. However, these disingenuous claims fail to account for the fact that detainees are kept naked even when the search is complete and no weapons are found.

A number of Palestinians detained by Israel have reported being tortured and abused.

“There can be no justification for seeking to humiliate hundreds of men, women, the disabled and elderly, and even a baby, through this kind of disgusting public display," The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) National Executive Director Nihad Awad said in a statement.

"There must be an international investigation of this incident and of the many other Israeli war crimes in Gaza."

Human rights groups and the United Nations have recorded instances of Israeli forces conducting extrajudicial killings of Palestinians who were detained after being removed from shelters and displacement camps.

Earlier this month, Israeli soldiers captured and mistreated Palestinian men, publishing images of them stripped, kneeling, bound, and blindfolded.

The Israeli military labeled them as Hamas terrorists surrendering in Gaza, but doubts arose about their militant status.

Palestinians identified non-fighters among them, challenging the initial narrative.

The images sparked international concern, with the United States, Israel's close ally, denouncing them as "deeply disturbing".

Before the Israeli aggression in Gaza began on October 7, videos illustrating widespread Palestinian detainments were infrequent, according to Omar Shakir, the Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch.

But Israel's routine detention and mistreatment of Palestinians have been ongoing, often involving torture.