US calls on Israel not to strip detained Palestinians 

US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller stressed the need for Israel not to repeat the incident of displaying pictures of Palestinian prisoners in Gaza without clothes.

Miller explained in a press statement yesterday that Israeli officials had been contacted regarding this issue, indicating that Tel Aviv replied to say: “They conduct searches on detained individuals in Gaza to ensure that they are not wearing suicide vests, that they don’t have other weapons, that they pose no danger to IDF forces.”

The spokesman added that Israeli officials “made clear to us, however, that these photographs should not have been taken, should not have been released, and they made it clear going forward that that will not be their practice and that if they do conduct searches of detainees, they will give them their clothes back immediately. Those are obviously appropriate steps to take.”

Last week, the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation published pictures and a video clip of dozens of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip who had been detained by Israeli occupation forces in Gaza, stripped to their underwear and forced to remain naked in the cold.

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