Israel-Gaza war: Disturbing videos and reports lead to growing calls for war crimes investigation
Gaza City, Gaza - Calls to investigate potential war crimes committed by Israel in its war on Gaza are mounting amid reports of field executions and disturbing videos of stripped Palestinians – including children – being stripped and detained inside a stadium.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) on Monday issued a statement urging an international investigation into a video that appears to show scores of Palestinian prisoners stripped down to their underwear and made to kneel in rows.
Footage posted by the Hamas-affiliated Quds News Network – which claims the images were shot by an Israeli journalist embedded with the IDF – reportedly show the Al-Yarmouk stadium in Gaza City being turned into a mass detention camp.
Israeli forces appear to be corralling the prisoners, among them elderly men and children, as bulldozers and tanks roll over the field, digging up the grass. In one sequence, an Israeli soldier carries what seems to be a bundled-up baby.
The authenticity of the videos has not yet been independently verified.
CAIR and Jewish Voice for Peace respond to harrowing reports
"Under international humanitarian law, all prisoners of war must be treated humanely. Humiliating and publishing humiliating images of prisoners could be a violation of the Geneva Conventions," CAIR warned.
Its statement also referred to a new report by the Geneva-based Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, which says it has documented "dozens of cases of field executions" in Gaza. Evidence of acts that, if substantiated, would amount to war crimes has been submitted to the UN the International Criminal Court.
Jewish Voice for Peace, which has led anti-war protests in the US since the start of hostilities, also responded to the reports, writing on X: "We're deeply disturbed by reports of the Israeli military carrying out field executions of Palestinians as well as horrific images of Palestinians, including children, detained under atrocious conditions in Al-Yarmouk Stadium."
Israeli authorities previously caused global outrage by publishing humiliating photos of naked Palestinian prisoners, many of whom were confirmed to have no association with Hamas.
In response to an attack led Hamas by that killed just over 1,100 people, Israel has been besieging Gaza for close to three months, killing more than 20,000 according to the local health ministry.
Cover photo: via REUTERS