(19 Dec 2023)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip - 19 December 2023
1. Medical workers carrying Palestinian man released from Israeli detention out of ambulance on stretcher ++MUTE++
2. Released Palestinian detainee Mohammad al-Araj sitting on floor of room of al-Aqsa Hospital
3. Released detainees on hospital floor
4. Released detainee speaking
5. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mohammad al-Araj, Palestinian man released from Israeli detention:
"They (Israeli military) asked for the evacuation of the displaced people, the doctors, and the wounded. We remained besieged for four days. The bombing was around al-Mamadani (al-Ahli) Hospital. The tank entered the yard of the hospital and returned. At nine o’clock at night, the tank started bombing near al-Mamadani. In the morning, they had bulldozed the cemetery, and they were using loudspeakers asking the wounded and the displaced in al-Mamadani Hospital to evacuate."
6. Released detainees on hospital floor
7. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mohammad al-Araj, Palestinian man released from Israeli detention:
"Torture, they torture everyone they want, we heard the sound of screaming and our eyes were covered, we did not know what would happen to us, whether we would be killed or live."
8. Released detainees on hospital floor
9. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mohammad al-Araj, Palestinian man released from Israeli detention:
"The others, I do not know what happened to them or how many they were. My disabled brother was also taken away, and I do not know what happened to him. My mother was wounded in her head and her back when the roof of a house fell on her. I do not know what happened to them."
(Journalist off screen: "How many were there?")
"About 150 people, from injuries and displaced people, and maybe more."
10. Various of released detainee receiving treatment on hospital floor
STORYLINE:
Two Palestinian men recently released from Israeli detention were brought to a hospital in central Gaza on Tuesday, saying they were tortured while they were held.
Mohammad al-Araj and another man arrived at the al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah to be treated a day after they were among dozens of men who crossed back into the Gaza Strip at the Kerem Shalom crossing the previous day.
They were among hundreds of Palestinians who had been detained by the Israeli military in recent weeks as it stepped up its ground offensive.
They told The Associated Press that all the detainees had their hands tied, and tortured by Israeli forces.
"We heard the sound of screaming and our eyes were covered," al-Araj said. "We did not know what would happen to us, whether we would be killed or live."
Al-Araj said he was detained after a strike on al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City.
The roundups were an emerging tactic in Israel’s operations in Gaza with its military seeking to solidify control in evacuated areas in the north and collect intelligence.
The air and ground war, launched in response to Hamas' Oct. 7 attack into Israel, has killed nearly 20,000 Palestinians, displaced some 1.9 million, demolished much of northern Gaza and sparked attacks on U.S. and Israeli targets across the region.
AP video shot by Abd Al Kareem Hana
Production by Wafaa Shurafa
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