WASHINGTON: Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip has “a significant negative impact on the human rights situation”, a US human rights repot said.
The US State Department’s 2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices has provided details over the matter and said that Israel is committing systemic discrimination against people of Palestine in the judicial process.
The State Department said that there are several reports that Israel’s government and its agents had “committed arbitrary, unlawful killings during” 2023, and “disappearances”.
The report addressed the current conditions in Israeli prisons and the ill treatment of Palestinian prisoners, adding that “there were a large number of reports that authorities held some prisoners in very bad situation that harmed their health.
US Reports on Israel Highlights Discrimination Against Palestinians
According to the report, the military law also allowed the indefinite administrative arrest without charge or trial of Palestinian people from the occupied West Bank and Gaza detained or imprisoned within Israel.
It further said that Israeli people who committed crimes within the Occupied West Bank were subject only to Israeli law and could only be tried in civilian courts in Israel, whereas Palestinian people in the Occupied West Bank were subject to trial in Israeli military courts.
The number of Palestinian people killed in the besieged Gaza Strip during the Israeli military onslaught has reached more than 34,151, mostly children and women. Another 77,084 have been injured, the health ministry said.
The escalation in Israeli violence has left the Gaza Strip in ruins. Among the dead are more than 14,500 children and 9,500 women, underscoring the disproportionate toll on vulnerable populations, Gaza’s Health Ministry said.
Meanwhile, Major-General Aharon Haliva, head of Israel’s military intelligence, has tendered resignation over failures related to the October 7 Hamas strike. Haliva admitted the intelligence division’s failure in preventing the Hamas surprise attack, which breached Israel’s defenses.
