Tensions remained high in Israel as nine soldiers were due to appear before a military court for an initial hearing Tuesday over what a defense lawyer said were allegations of sexual abuse of a Palestinian at a facility where Israel has held prisoners from Gaza during the war.
Hard-line nationalists in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and others have protested. An investigation by The Associated Press and reports by rights groups have exposed abysmal conditions at Sde Teiman, where most of the thousands detained in Gaza have been held. Israeli authorities have generally denied abuses in detention facilities for Palestinians.
More bodies were found in Gaza, where the Health Ministry says over 39,300 people have been killed since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel sparked the war. Some diseases are running rampant because of appalling conditions in overcrowded tent camps housing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians driven from their homes. The sanitation system has collapsed, leaving pools of sewage.
Netanyahu has vowed heavy retaliation against Hezbollah after a rocket slammed into a soccer field over the weekend in the Israel-controlled Golan Heights, killing 12 children in the Druze town of Majdal Shams. Israel accused Hezbollah in Lebanon, while Hezbollah quickly issued a rare denial of responsibility. The two have exchanged fire almost daily since the latest Israel-Hamas war began.
Here’s the latest:
Hospital says bodies found after Israeli forces withdraw from Khan Younis area
Hospital officials say emergency workers in Gaza have recovered the bodies of 22 Palestinians found in eastern parts of Khan Younis city after Israeli troops withdrew from the area following a weeks-long offensive.
It is not clear when they were killed. Workers have often found bodies in rubble or on the streets after Israeli offensives. Another seven people were killed by Israeli airstrikes in Khan Younis late Monday and early Tuesday, according to officials at Nasser Hospital, where the bodies were brought.
In central Gaza, Israeli bombardment of the Bureij refugee camp killed at least nine people, according to hospital authorities. Seven of the dead were killed in an airstrike on a residential building, Awda hospital said. As residents were transferring the bodies, Israeli forces opened fire on the vehicle close to the Salahuddin road, killing two, it said.
The Israeli military says it completed operational activity in the area of Khan Younis and was conducting targeted raids in central Gaza.
9 Israeli soldiers go to court over allegations of sexual abuse of a Palestinian
JERUSALEM — Nine Israeli soldiers are due to appear before a military court for an initial hearing Tuesday on what a defense lawyer says are allegations of sexual abuse of a Palestinian at a shadowy facility where Israel has held prisoners from Gaza during the war.
The investigation into the soldiers stoked tensions between the military command and hard-line nationalists in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government who advocate even harsher treatment in Israel’s conduct of the 10-month-old war in Gaza.
The soldiers’ detention Monday triggered protests by supporters demanding their release, including members of parliament and at least two government ministers. Several hundred broke into the facility in southern Israel, known as Sde Teiman, and then into the military base where the soldiers were held.
Defense lawyer Nati Rom, who represents three of the soldiers, did not elaborate on the nature of the alleged sexual abuse and said they were innocent. The military has said only it was looking into allegations of “substantial abuse.”
Gaza waste collection systems collapse, UN report says
JERUSALEM — A report from the United Nations Development Program says there has been a collapse in the solid waste collection system in Gaza during the war.
The report found that Gaza’s two major landfills are inaccessible due to fighting, while the number of waste collection vehicles has dropped from 251 before the war to 51.
Chitose Noguchi, the deputy special representative for UNDP, said most of the destruction to Gaza’s garbage system is due to Israeli bombardment, but Israeli evacuation orders and safety restrictions have also hampered municipal workers’ ability to access landfills. The UNDP is collecting around 680 tons of garbage in Gaza each day, Noguchi said, but it has nowhere to go. Garbage trucks cannot leave the strip.
Noguchi said the pileup of garbage has fueled outbreaks of communicable diseases across the Strip.
The report also found there’s only one remaining vehicle operational to transfer medical waste in Gaza. The medical disinfection machines distributed inside hospitals by the U.N. are nearly all non-functional.
Israel’s military did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Its body in charge of humanitarian efforts in Gaza has said it’s working to improve waste collection processes and considering plans to allow more garbage trucks into Gaza.