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30 Palestinians held by Israel found dead, handcuffed inside Gaza school: NGO

January 31, 2024 at 2:18 pm

People evacuate their belongings following an Israeli attack on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on December 31, 2023 [Ashraf Amra – Anadolu Agency]

A Palestinian non-governmental organisation has accused the Israeli army of executing 30 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, Anadolu Agency reports.

“Thirty handcuffed and blindfolded bodies were found inside a school in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza,” the Palestinian Prisoner Society said in a statement on Wednesday.

It said the dead Palestinians were detained by Israeli forces before their death.

“It’s clear that the Occupation forces had carried out a field execution against these people,” the NGO added.

The group said Israeli authorities refuse to provide information about the fate of Palestinians held by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army on the accusation.

Israel has launched a deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip since a 7 October Hamas attack, killing at least 26,900 Palestinians and injuring 65,949. Nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

However, since then, it has been revealed by Haaretz that helicopters and tanks of the Israeli army had, in fact, killed many of the 1,139 soldiers and civilians claimed by Israel to have been killed by the Palestinian Resistance.

The Israeli offensive has left 85 per cent of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60 per cent of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

READ: Israel refuses to provide information about Gaza detainees, rights group says