Israeli Soldiers Sexually Assault Nurses
CrossFireArabia- December 29, 2024
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor reported that Israeli soldiers at Kamal Adwan Hospital subjected women to extreme sexual violence, forcing them to strip under threats and insults. One nurse was forced to remove her pants, and when she resisted, a soldier slapped her and placed his hand on her, causing a nosebleed.
In another case, a soldier tore off a woman’s abaya after she refused to remove her hijab, exposing parts of her body. Another woman was told, “Take it off, or we’ll do it by force.” Girls under 20 were specifically targeted, with soldiers forcing them to remove their clothing under threat, physical abuse, and sexual harassment.
After Hospital Atrocities Gazans Say Only God Can Help them
- CrossFireArabia
- December 28, 2024
Harrowing testimonies of field executions, sexual harassment by the Israeli army in northern Gaza
Harrowing testimonies documenting serious crimes committed by the Israeli army against civilians during its storming of Kamal Adwan Hospital and the surrounding areas in northern Gaza were collected by Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor.
These crimes included deliberate killings, field executions, as well as sexual and physical assaults on women and girls from medical teams and displaced women in the area.
The units of Israeli infantry and armoured forces stormed Kamal Adwan Hospital and its vicinity, Friday, following weeks of siege, artillery and air bombardment, and targeted attacks on medical and technical staff working in the hospital. The attacks also disabled the hospital’s operational capacities by targeting power generators and oxygen production equipment.
According to testimonies collected by Euro-Med Monitor’s field team, Israeli forces committed a series of horrific crimes during their assault on the hospital. These included detonating booby-trapped robots near several inhabited homes, causing their collapse and killing civilians inside. The crimes also involved Israeli soldiers executing civilians on the spot, some of whom were wounded, while others carried white flags.
The Israeli army detained dozens of women and girls, subjecting them to severe abuse amounting to sexual harassment, alongside degrading treatment that violated their human dignity. This included beating them and forcing them to remove their hijabs and clothing.
Additionally, Israeli forces forcibly evacuated everyone in the area, compelling them to flee outside the northern Gaza governorate. During this operation, the army abducted dozens of individuals, including members of medical and service teams, such as Dr. Hossam Abu Safyieh, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, and journalist Islam Ahmed.
A soldier forced a nurse to take off her trousers, then placed his hand on her. When she tried to resist, he struck her hard across the face
A woman expelled from the area by the Israeli army
“A.A.,” 41, recounted to the Euro-Med Monitor team: “I am a volunteer paramedic. I was staying in a house near Kamal Adwan Hospital with 11 civilians. Around 12:30 a.m. on Friday, we heard a vehicle at the door. I told those with me it seemed like the army was placing explosive robots. Looking out the window, I saw several robots in front of homes in the area.”
He added, “We left our house and moved to another nearby, hoping to survive the explosions. About half an hour later, the robots started detonating. The sounds were massive and terrifying, like miniature nuclear bombs.”
He continued: “During this time, a young man who had reached another house in the area told us that the place they sought refuge in was bombed, injuring several people. I rushed with others to help, but as we approached the house, an Israeli aircraft fired another missile at it. We managed to evacuate one of the injured and found one dead. However, we were also injured in the process. At that moment, we heard screams from a nearby house that had been hit as well. We were in a dire state, injured and unable to help.”
He added: “We returned to the house amid ongoing explosions. In the morning, we went back to our original house to find it almost completely destroyed. Despite that, we sat in the kitchen, about 14 of us. Then army vehicles began shelling the house. We shouted that we were civilians. The homeowner stepped out, waving a white flag, but the soldiers immediately shot him dead from close range. When we tried to retrieve his body, they fired a shell at us, injuring more of us. Among us was a child who seemed to have a psychological disorder, worsened by the relentless bombing.”
“Later, the army sent a civilian (a Palestinian detainee) to tell us to surrender. We said we were civilians and raised a white flag. They led us to an open area near a cemetery, where we were forced to strip down to our underclothes and stand in the freezing cold. When the child with the psychological disorder stepped out, he ran towards an Israeli tank. I called out to him, but he didn’t respond. They shot him dead immediately. There was an armoured personnel carrier and a tank in the area. A soldier ordered us to gather at a specific spot. Among us were five injured individuals who were forced to walk in front of the tank. Suddenly, they were shot dead without any questioning.”
He added: “We were then ordered to stop near the tank, and I thought it was going to crush us. After some time, they transported us to the Al-Fakhoura area, where they left us exposed and nearly naked until 8 p.m. We were around 300 people, and they detained several among us. During this time, an officer fired shots above our heads and ordered us to head towards Jabalia. Drone aircraft hovered overhead until we arrived.”
In the same assault, the Euro-Med Monitor documented testimonies revealing that nurses, patients, and their companions at Kamal Adwan Hospital were subjected to acts amounting to sexual violence. Israeli soldiers forced women and girls to remove their clothing under threats, insults, and offensive slurs targeting their honour. Several women and girls also reported being sexually harassed.
One of the women expelled from the area told the Euro-Med Monitor team: “A soldier forced a nurse to take off her trousers, then placed his hand on her. When she tried to resist, he struck her hard across the face, causing her nose to bleed.”
Another woman reported that a soldier told a woman in their group: “Take it off, or we’ll force it off you.”
In another incident, a woman refused to remove her headscarf, prompting a soldier to tear her clothes, exposing her chest. One victim recounted being dragged by a soldier who forced her to press against him, saying, “Take it off now,” while hurling obscene remarks at her.
Similarly, a hospital staff member told the Euro-Med Monitor team: “The soldiers ordered us to remove our hijabs, but we refused. They then turned to the girls under 20 years old and demanded they remove their hijabs, but they also refused. The soldiers decided to punish us by taking two women at a time and forcing them to lift their clothes and lower their trousers under threats and coercion.”
During the assault, Israeli forces destroyed and burned most of Kamal Adwan Hospital’s sections after targeting it with shells. Preliminary information also indicates that several hospital staff members were killed while trying to extinguish fires in one of the hospital’s sections, which was completely rendered out of service.
Euro-Med Monitor Human Rights Monitor calls on relevant UN bodies to launch an immediate investigation into the allegations contained in the testimonies of survivors from the Israeli army’s assault on Kamal Adwan Hospital and the surrounding area. It stresses the need to activate legal mechanisms to hold accountable those responsible for human rights violations, including individuals, political leaders, and military officials involved in such acts.
Euro-Med Monitor reaffirms that the failure of states to fulfill their legal obligations to halt the genocide in Gaza over the past 14 months, coupled with their refusal to take decisive steps to compel Israel to stop its crimes, renders them internationally liable for these atrocities, with some states effectively becoming accomplices.
The international system, led by the United Nations, has chosen not to achieve the fundamental goals and principles upon which it was established. Over the past 14 months, it has displayed a disgraceful failure to uphold its commitment to protecting civilians and stopping the genocide Israel is committing against Palestinians in Gaza—an objective that should be central to its mission and existence.
Euro-Med Monitor reiterates its calls for all relevant international and UN parties to act immediately to fulfill their legal obligations to end the genocide in Gaza, impose a comprehensive arms embargo on Israel, hold it accountable for all its crimes, and take concrete measures to protect Palestinian civilians.
Euro-Med Monitor also demands the facilitation of the return of forcibly displaced persons to their homes, the release of abducted Palestinians, and the revelation of the fate of forcibly disappeared individuals. It also urges the immediate and unobstructed entry of all forms of humanitarian aid, particularly life-saving supplies, to meet the needs of Gaza’s population, especially in northern areas.
Finally, Euro-Med Monitor calls for the compensation of all victims and their families, ensuring the withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces from the entirety of Gaza and all Palestinian territories.
Jabalia Steadfast in Face of Israeli Bombs
- CrossFireArabia
- December 24, 2024
With the intensification of the Israeli bombing of northern Gaza and with a siege of more than 80 days now, especially of Jabalia, its camp and Beit Lahia, the resistance is using all available tools to counter the Israeli aggression despite turning north Gaza into an eyesore of destruction and not a place for survival.
The resistance continues to show unparalleled bravery standing up Israeli soldiers who can be seen carrying their dead and wounded on a daily basis.
The Jabalia camp, one of the largest refugee camps in the Gaza Strip, reflects, with its history and reality, a miniature image of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Analysts point out the operations launched from Jabalia reflect the roots of the Palestinian struggle rooted in the camps since the Nakba in 1948.
“We are the ones who used to chase the Israeli patrol in our camp here (Jabalia) with the sticks”… This was one of the expressions used by martyr leader Nizar Rayyan inside the Jabalia camp. He was martyred in the first wars that the resistance fought with the Israeli occupation forces in 2008-2009, showing the bravery of the people of Jabalia and their legendary steadfastness in confronting the occupier.
“Just as we rubbed your noses in Ashdod, we will rub your noses in Jabalia,” Rayyan used to say.
While the 444 days of this rabid war on Gaza Strip should have been enough to end the resistance – according to Israeli and American thinking – the Al-Qassam and Al-Quds Brigades fighters in Jabalia say this is wishful thinking even if thousands of Mujahideens are killed, and the weapons run out as the recent stabbing operations show. These operations shouldn’t be interperated to mean as some suggest that weapons are running out for the enemy’s daily losses are not decreasing while the capabilities of the resistance are rising.
The Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas military wing, announced Sunday, it targeted nine soldiers inside a house with a “TBG” shell west of Jabalia camp, confirming they have either been killed and/or wounded whilst stating it destroyed an Israeli troop carrier with a “commando” explosive device in the Al-Alami area in the center of Jabalia camp.
The brigades added that “a Zionist officer was sniped in Abu Al-Aish Street in the center of Jabalia camp, north of the Strip,” and said it targeted a second Israeli troop carrier with a “commando” explosive device west of Beit Lahia, north of the Strip.
As well last Friday, the Al-Qassam Brigades announced it carried out a complex operation in Jabalia camp; where one of its fighters advanced towards an Israeli sniper and his assistant, and stabbed them to death, adding the fighter wore the uniform of one of the dead, and an hour after the operation, he advanced towards an Israeli force of six individuals, and blew himself up with an explosive belt, killing and wounding its members.
Last Saturday, Al-Qassam Brigades announced on its Telegram channel its fighters carried out a complex operation, stabbing three Israeli soldiers to death, seizing their personal weapons, then storming a house where a foot force had taken cover, killing two of its soldiers at the house gate.
On Sunday, the Al Jihad Al-Quds Brigades stated that one of its heroic martyrs stormed a Zionist troop carrier and carried out a special operation by detonating a suicide bomb among the soldiers who were at the entrance to the Al-Awda Towers in Ezbet Beit Hanoun.
Military analyst Major-General Fayez Al-Duwairi says “zero distance” is a golden opportunity for resistance fighters in their confrontation with the occupation forces, given the big difference between the equipment of the Israeli army with its high capabilities, and the weapons made by al- mujahideen locally.
He added the more the intensity of the ground aggression and Israeli incursions into the Gaza Strip areas increases, the greater the resistance’s opportunity to engage directly with enemy forces.
Since the start of the Battle of Al-Aqsa Flood, the resistance fighters have shown the most prominent of their weapons to target the Israeli enemy, including Al-Yassin 105 shells, tandem shells, sniper weapons, Shawaaz bombs and machine guns according to the Palestine Information Center.
However, the use of the stabbing weapon and explosive belts which emerged in recent days to carry out martyrdom operations, indicates that the weapons used by the resistance are no longer as accessible as they were in the past, due to the tight siege imposed by the occupation, and the intensity of the operations carried out by the resistance fighters, which has led to the depletion of the battalions’ weapons stockpile.
The heroic operations carried out by the resistance fighters in northern Gaza over the past 80 days have resulted in the killing of more than 70 soldiers and officers in the occupation forces, in the Jabalia camp and camp alone, including the bombing of more than 100 military vehicles, 17 sniper operations, and 26 clashes with a foot force.
In a Yedioth Ahronoth interview with an Israeli officer he said the confrontation in northern Gaza these days is through the alleys, face to face with Palestinian fighters who do not fear death and refuse to be arrested.
Major-General Mohammed Al-Samadi believes that the significance of the stabbing operations and martyrdom operations in Jabalia confirms that the resistance is cohesive and strong, and adapts according to combat developments, and carries out hit-and-run operations, and carries out operations through small groups, including the lone wolf operations carried out by one of the mujahideen against the occupation forces, causing casualties and injuries in their ranks.
Al-Samadi added in an interview with Al Jazeera the resistance in northern Gaza has killed 17 soldiers through sniper operations, and that one fighter in the resistance factions can kill a group of individuals in the occupation forces, indicating that the occupation suffers from weak morale among its fighters, and also suffers from an intelligence failure in knowing the resistance’s tactics.
Hamas Spells Out Daring Operation in Gaza
- CrossFireArabia
- December 23, 2024
The Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military wing, announced a daring operation in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza. Fighters freed Palestinian civilians held by Israeli forces inside a fortified building.
The operation began with the killing of three Israeli soldiers guarding the building. Resistance fighters then stormed the structure, neutralized the remaining forces, and seized their weapons. The freed civilians had been kidnapped and held inside the building by Israeli troops.
This comes amid a wave of resistance operations across Gaza. In recent days, Hamas and other factions carried out complex attacks, including suicide operations. These actions follow widespread detentions by Israeli forces across Palestinian territories since October 7, 2023 according to the Quds News Network.
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club reports over 10,800 arrests from the West Bank, Jerusalem, and areas occupied in 1948. Many detainees include women, children, and re-arrested former prisoners. The numbers exclude thousands kidnapped from Gaza during the ongoing genocide.
In Gaza, reports describe systematic torture, executions, and amputations in Israeli detention centers. One notorious facility, “Sdi Teiman,” has been a hub of brutal abuse. Survivors speak of killings, rape, and starvation.
Israeli authorities hold many Gaza hostages under the “unlawful combatant” label, denying them basic legal rights. This defies international agreements, including the Fourth Geneva Convention.
