[IMPORTANT] Hamas launches foot assault against settlements.

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I was highly critical of Israel when it happened back in the early 1980s and I have been highly critical of them ever since. I have never condoned those actions by Israel and would love to see everyone involved in it prosecuted.

If it had been Israel murdering the Palestinians on October 7, 2023 then I would be as strongly opposed to them doing so as I am to HAMAS doing so to Jews on October 7, 2023.

“Israel’s widespread and systemic abuse of Palestinians in detention and arbitrary arrest practices over decades, coupled with the absence of any restraints by the Israeli State since 7 October 2023, paint a shocking picture enabled by absolute impunity,” the experts said.

Around 9,500 Palestinians, including hundreds of children and women, are currently imprisoned—around one-third without charge or trial. Another unknown number are arbitrarily being held in detention facilities and ad hoc camps following a wave of arrest and abduction campaigns across Palestinian territory that targeted men, women and children particularly following 7 October.

The experts received substantiated reports of widespread abuse, torture, sexual assault and rape, amid atrocious inhumane conditions, with at least 53 Palestinians apparently dying as a result in 10 months.

Countless testimonies by men and women speak of detainees in cage-like enclosures, tied to beds blindfolded and in diapers, stripped naked, deprived of adequate healthcare, food, water and sleep, electrocutions including on their genitals, blackmail and cigarette burns. In addition, victims spoke of loud music played until their ears bled, attacks by dogs, waterboarding, suspension from ceilings and severe sexual and gender-based violence.

“Allegations of gang-rape of a Palestinian detainee, now shockingly supported by voices in the Israeli political establishment and society, provide irrefutable evidence that the moral compass is lost,” the experts said. In February 2024, a number of experts also expressed grave concern regarding the reports of sexual and other forms of gender-based violence committed against Palestinian women and girls in Israeli detention.

The Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory investigated Israel’s detention practices in 2023 and called on UN Member States to intervene and the International Criminal Court to promptly investigate what appeared to be a consolidated crime against humanity. The experts regret this call was not heeded.

“Torture practices are irredeemably unlawful and constitute international crimes, yet form part of the modus operandi of Israel’s notorious detention and torture system,” they warned. “These practices are intended to punish Palestinians for resisting occupation and seek to destroy them individually and collectively.”

Palestinian women and girls have reportedly been arbitrarily executed in Gaza, often together with family members, including their children, according to information received. “We are shocked by reports of the deliberate targeting and extrajudicial killing of Palestinian women and children in places where they sought refuge, or while fleeing. Some of them were reportedly holding white pieces of cloth when they were killed by the Israeli army or affiliated forces,” the experts said.

[…]

“We are particularly distressed by reports that Palestinian women and girls in detention have also been subjected to multiple forms of sexual assault, such as being stripped naked and searched by male Israeli army officers. At least two female Palestinian detainees were reportedly raped while others were reportedly threatened with rape and sexual violence,” the experts said. They also noted that photos of female detainees in degrading circumstances were also reportedly taken by the Israeli army and uploaded online.

The experts expressed concern that an unknown number of Palestinian women and children, including girls, have reportedly gone missing after contact with the Israeli army in Gaza. “There are disturbing reports of at least one female infant forcibly transferred by the Israeli army into Israel, and of children being separated from their parents, whose whereabouts remain unknown,” they said.

It's an opinion piece from Newsweek. Newsweek regularly allows propaganda pieces to be published without any critical commentary.

John Spencer is nothing more than a propagandist, why should his claims be taken without even a grain of salt? His job is to spin things as favourably as possible for Israel.

For TP: The article was first published on Mar 24, updated Mar 26, 2024.

There are plenty of propagandists i this thread working overtime to try to excuse HAMAS for their terrorist attacks on civilians.

You claim this, but your staunch defence of Israel's actions doesn't seem to sync with your claims.

Israel's been murdering Palestinians all along and yet you run defence for the terrorist state of Israel.

You can make whatever claims you'd like but your actions betray your sympathies and demonstrate your claims about your own attitudes to be questionable.

It was linked to MSN, but it is a Newsweek article.

It seems more like that’s how you’re interpreting it.

Nope. It was from MSN.

https://www.newsweek.com/israel-has-cre ... on-1883286

There's the original source.

MSN reposts articles from a number of sources, including Newsweek. That's why it shows a big Newsweek logo on the MSN version.

There are consequences to actions. HAMAS started this with their terrorism. Israel has no choice but to deal with them for those attacks.

That's a lie. HAMAS didn't even exist when this situation started back in 1947.

That's not what I said at all. Far from it.

It is absurd to imagine that in this day and age, anyone who thinks it is perfectly okay to kill all the civilians you want could become a Professor of Urban Warfare at West Point.

Nobody has claimed that it did exist back then.

There are consequences to actions. HAMAS started this with their terrorism. Israel has no choice but to deal with them for those attacks.

That's not what I said at all. Far from it.

Your talking points consistently rely on dishonesty and intentional misinterpretation of what has been said, likely because dishonesty is the only way to defend Israel's actions and you know it as well as everyone who criticizes Israel knows it.

If you have to rely on bad faith and deception to argue your case you have no case to make and there is nothing to be gained by treating your opinions as well-informed or credible.

Imagine insisting West Point graduates never go on to become propagandists and expecting to be taken seriously afterwards.

Funny, either you're claiming that this started on October 7th (a lie) or that Hamas is somehow responsible for the founding of Israel, which is actually what started this.

Either way, you clearly don't know what you're talking about.

Stop lying.