After the dramatic footage of dozens of detainees detained by the military in the Gaza Strip was published, the Palestinian side on Thursday denied the claim that all the detainees were Hamas operatives, and hastened to claim that they were civilians, some of whom were taken from a shelter in the Gaza Strip. According to a Gaza resident who spoke to Israel Hayom, "they took the men who were in a school used by the displaced persons in Beit Lahia, and left the women."
Watch the extraordinary footage: Dozens detained on suspicion of involvement in terrorism in the heart of the Gaza Strip
Palestinian activists reported that some of those arrested had been pulled out of homes, and that "among them there are also medical personnel and officials affiliated with Fatah and the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah."
"They were forced to remove their clothes"
There were also claims that among the detainees was journalist Diaa Kahlot, who works as a correspondent for Al-Araby al-Jadeed, a media outlet close to Qatar.
The unusual footage spread like wildfire on social networks, underneath which read: "Photos documenting the arrests made by the occupation forces of dozens of Palestinian civilians, forcing them to remove their clothes and abusing them in the northern Gaza Strip." Some called the detainees "abductees."
Dozens detained on suspicion of involvement in terrorism in the heart of the Gaza Strip, photo: None
The Palestinian ambassador to London, Hossam Zomlot, charged that "the Israeli media, which has not shown the mass extermination in Gaza, has no qualms when it presents these images of the occupation forces arresting and stripping civilians taken from a UN shelter in Gaza today."
On the other hand, there were those who rejoiced at the "pictures of surrender," for example, a user who identified himself as Ayman al-Aloul tweeted, saying, "I wish we would see Sanwar and people like this, instead of these poor people."
It should be noted that the Palestinians detained in the northern Gaza Strip were detained on suspicion of involvement in terrorist activity. Photos circulating on social media show the men in a truck, handcuffed and stripped of their clothes. After an initial inspection, the suspects were stripped to rule out the possibility that they were carrying weapons.
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